Throw your kids in the woods

Now, I've not been keeping up on this for several reasons, the main one being that I don't have enough time. It dawned on me last night that I've been watching an awful lot of television on my computer thanks to Netflix and my recently acquired EyeTV contraption that gives me regular cable. While said television watching has been great (Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job being a particular favorite) it often leaves me feeling like a big slovenly American. My challenge to myself then was to act like a smoker and every time I felt like watching some boob tube, I'd use that time to write instead. The trouble is my other reason for not writing is that I'm not the type to tell everyone all the little details of my life, largely because they're just not that interesting, even to me. That's all I've felt I've had to write about. But, I've been told more than once to write anything. The plan is to make an effort to try. Though, as you all know, my record isn't great. Being lazy, I don't plan on sticking much to traditional conventions such as citations or even links. The idea is that it'll free me up some and allow me to focus on the writing part.

So what is on my mind these days, other than theories of economic growth? There was an article in the New York Times about the sales of kid's picture books falling. The reason given was that parents are pushing their kids to read chapter-based young-adult books as early as ages five and six, because if they don't, little Billy won't get into Harvard. Okay, so I was making that last leap but it's not a hard one to make. The interesting thing about it was that they quoted a professional type person, in the field of this or that, saying that picture books are a great learning tool for analytical thinking because with sparse text they force the little brat to fill in the gaps between pages. In contrast, the chapter-based books spell everything out for the reader and not necessarily with more advanced text. The best, or worst, part was when a parent said that they kept their six-year-old away from picture books even though he said that the chapter books made reading feel like work. Solid parenting right there. It makes me wonder if they see reading as work too.

I see this as being a problem with unfettered competition or meritocracy. Yes, the person that does the best and is presumably doing the most work gets rewarded, but at what point do we get inefficient or ill advised investments by parents and students? Maybe better asked, are we getting too little investment in other areas? It's reasonable to question whether one article can be taken as actually showing a broad trend in parenting choices, but it's hard to argue with declining sales of picture books on a national level. What was once a staple of parenting is slipping away and being replaced, and that to me suggests some good evidence of a shift in parenting practices.

It's been argued that parents meddle too much in the sporting lives of kids and that having kids in soccer at four or five can actually hurt their social development. Left alone, kids learn to create rules as a group and structure play collectively. Add a coach and you take that all away. Forcing your kids to read more advanced books than are recommended for their age is just another example of that. The main assumption underlying both activities is that what kids would chose to do if left alone is unproductive and possibly even harmful. But look at animals. Cubs largely do whatever they want and so they play a lot. Through unstructured play they develop all the skills they need. Why can't we do this more? Maybe Billy doesn't become a gifted writer but he develops a passion for drawing thanks to all those great pictures. The mind of a child is not zero-sum; if they don't become amazing at one thing it does not mean that they won't become amazing at something else.