Mother Goose is a rabid lefty

[Jaboney]

Curious. What’s the lesson here? Is this an implicit recognition that the foundations of a well-adjusted child and a healthy society are airy-fairy touchy-feely virtues, or merely that different lessons need be taught at different times, and no one but innocent lil’ ankle-biters will swallow such codswallop? Why is it no one reads Ayn Rand-approved nursery rhymes?

@"[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/books/review/Crain-t.html?_r=2

NYT/ Daily Dish[/url]"]…most parents want their children to be far left in their early years — to share toys, to eschew the torture of siblings, to leave a clean environment behind them, to refrain from causing the extinction of the dog, to rise above coveting and hoarding, and to view the blandishments of corporate America through a lens of harsh skepticism. But fewer parents wish for their children to carry all these virtues into adulthood. It is one thing to convince your child that no individual owns the sandbox and that it is better for all children that it is so. It is another to hope that when he grows up he will donate the family home to a workers’ collective.

[Buttercup]

Interesting viewpoint.

Nope, it’s because they believe that kids who live by those rules are easier to discipline/teach/safeguard. Kids who share toys learn to deal with the fact that there aren’t many toys. Kids who clean up don’t leave it all for the teacher. Kids who don’t fight require less arbitration.

A short-sighted view of things, IMO. Divide and conquer was always my strategy. Call me a hippy, but I see education as a way of subverting nonsense and have very few arbitrary rules in class, yet 9.9 times out of ten, kids are polite and cool in class.

One way to test a ‘rule’ is to ask yourself ‘Why?’, five times. If it doesn’t come down to safety or courtesy, then the rule is usually bs; making nonsense up to make yourself comfortable, as a teacher (although kids need to learn that everyone does that sometimes).

Why is it important to share a toy? Are there negative aspects to sharing a toy, or than selfish ‘I don’t want to’? There’s a valuable lesson in ‘He’s playing with it. Tough.’ or ‘He got it first.’ or other stuff.

Instilling kids with my nonsense isn’t going to get them far in life; I wanted my students to think a little.

Besides, there’s no evidence that the world has become a better place with the implementation of left-leaning values in schools that has taken place over recent decades. if anything, the preponderence (in my country, certainly) of middle class, middle aged, white females in teaching has brought education to its knees.

[Jaboney]

@Buttercup

One way to test a ‘rule’ is to ask yourself ‘Why?’, five times. If it doesn’t come down to safety or courtesy, then the rule is usually bs; making nonsense up to make yourself comfortable, as a teacher (although kids need to learn that everyone does that sometimes).

I’ll have to take that out and about for a few days, see if it flies.

[Buttercup]

@Jaboney

[quote=“Buttercup”]One way to test a ‘rule’ is to ask yourself ‘Why?’, five times. If it doesn’t come down to safety or courtesy, then the rule is usually bs; making nonsense up to make yourself comfortable, as a teacher (although kids need to learn that everyone does that sometimes).

I’ll have to take that out and about for a few days, see if it flies.[/quote]

Sure, sounds a bit weird, I know. But instead of just saying ‘QUIET!’, ask yourself why are you saying it and are those reasons valid, or is it just for convenience? Maybe they are valid (there’s another class next door, others are reading and need some peace) but maybe not and the shouting would have positive outcomes; letting off steam, communicating something, self expression, whatever. Routines and boundaries don’t have to be ‘controlling’ or thoughtless authoritarianism. What does that teach, other than ‘My teacher is a lazy arse who doesn’t listen?’