Excellent guest commentary by Mike McClellan ("Don't worry so much about kids' happiness", Aug. 12). As a behavioral health therapist, I see the prolific damage caused from spoiling our kids. Children having children keeps our planet right where it is and has been. The ability to do difficult things creates high self esteem and leaders who know who they are. Now that's love.
D.J. Diebold, Scottsdale/Mesa
sockratties posted at 9:28 am on Sun, Aug 21, 2011.
D.J. - Perhaps there are several components that have been added to the mix... it's not just that parents are trying to fix everything for them and not letting them be responsible for the consequences of their decisions, although that is a big part.
Some possible influences are:
-Parents are both working, making a commitment to routine difficult.
-Parents are separated and compete for the affection of the children.
-Single parent homes put kids in charge of stuff like school.
-Parents are under-educated and unable to evaluate their kids progress.
Kids have way too many distractions such as cell phones, laptops and online notebooks that are wrongly considered necessities and should be removed from the learning environment. Watching the distraction of cell phone addiction in both adults and children makes it obvious that attention spans are in a serious downward spiral.
There is a gathering consensus that there is no reason to learn something you can look up in seconds.
George Orwell was a visionary in many ways, but even he didn't make the connection between “tweeting” and “new-speak;” the reduction of language to the point that complex thought would be impossible because language would no longer have the required tools to form complex ideas.
As parents we need to limit our children's access to “feel good” and get them back to using paper and pencils, grading them individually (not on a curve where nobody excels and nobody fails) and expect them to use their minds.
Rich posted at 6:14 pm on Sun, Aug 21, 2011.
I read Jean Paul Sartre and Nietzsche in high school. I challenged every teacher, was very unpopular and missed scholarships, because I read and quoted Fredrick Jackson Turner in a history class I got a 'B', because my teachers POed me. Be careful what you teach.
Your language is changing. The last master of your grammar was Edward Bulwer-Lytton and he's almost two centuries dead. Your language is evolving, your children communicate better than you do. Maybe, just maybe their modifications won't include the need to kill each other to make ourselves understood.