"Raise Children with a Wild Streak"

[folkypoet]

Interesting article from a professor at Appalachian State University:

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlot...s/15769490.htm

[keeksmom]

I love that article. Thanks for the link.

[Sharon, RN]

That was great! I'm going to print it out and make it the first "mission statement" (ugh, that term!) of my brand-new home school.

Thank you for sharing!

[papayapetunia]

That was great!

[Hera]

That guy would love my kid, .

[SRHS]

Well, if Zac wants to go to College, I'll send him there!!!!

Thanks for the link, that was a GREAT article, I've passed it around to all my hs email lists!!!

Sus

[elizam]

I Really LIked it, Also, But Saw no Real Responses

on the few boards on which it was posted.

I hear firsthand from my ds who is in public school 8th grade just how dull and not very passionate about school most of the "best students" are. Those students are, for the most part, "AG", which I guess is supposed to mean gifted. All of the teachers' and prominent in the community parents' kids are in those classes.

I don't hear of *any* kids who are passionate about dance, music, writing, etc. There are a few big readers (like my ds), but those are usually not in the gifted classes. The gifted ones dimsmiss reading as something that they "don't have time for."

I see my ds' light for learning slowly being extinguished. He was hsed from grades 2-6 (he didn't respond well to the pressures of K and first, either, although many thought he was intelligent, just a very slow and somewhat distractible worker). Now that he is back in PS, he is becoming that same grumpy, slow, unmotivated boy he was predicted to be by his K teacher. A few well-meanig folks have told me it is because he was hed and not trained to be a good worker. :

Sigh...he once was a kid with a wild streak--a GOOD wild streak. There are so few people who really "get" that.

[raleigh_mom]

I was totally one of these "generic" kids. I am really excited about the chance to raise my daughters to be different. Well, they are already stubborn and creative - I guess that's a good start, though it is rather tough when they are young!

[warriorprincess]

Great article!

[Sneezykids]

What a good read! Thanks for posting it!

I've got two little fireballs myself here

[saintmom]

Thanks for posting the link, you made my day

[UUMom]

I never thought I'd see the day where 'good kids' are seen as detriments. Aren't there enough wild-streak frat boys on campuses as it ?

[cottonwood]

Did you read the article? The stereotypical frat boy is more characterized by his love of beer bongs and porn than an inventive, self-reliant, intellectually and creatively adventurous spirit. The point of the article is not that a destructive or gluttonous wildness is desirable, but that "good children" are often so repressed and well-trained that their ability to do anything authentic and truly joyful has atrophied.

I know this well enough because I was/am a good girl myself and it has taken me a long, long time to even begin to find my spark again. It's one of the main reasons I'm unschooling my own kids, and trying to deschool myself.

He's got the right idea, he understands that it's a valuable thing, unfortunately though he's clueless about how it actually happens. "Make" them play hooky? "Teach" them to do things on their own? Don't "let" them be "too" busy? Hmm.

[UUMom]

Oh, I did read it, and while it has some valid points, I think he's making some generalizations that aren't true. Ime, the brightest children are often the most creative. One doesn't have to eat crayons to be creative. One doesn't have to be impolite to be an excited learner. I think it's weird we hear so much about how bad teens are, are evil, how lazy, and here's this guy dissing kids who are trying to be decent.

I also feel bad for all the nervous kids being judged so harshly by him at the interviews. Applying to college can be a very emotionally draining experience. I am not sure one is seeing the whole child at such an interview-- and it's often hard to say all of what you are in an application. And maybe he's wanting to see kids in the peace corps, which is c wonderful thing, but he's also discounting how much kids can learn at jobs, esp city kids.

From this person's harsh essay on such young kids-- 17 and 18 yrs old for goodness sakes-- I wouldn't encourage my children to apply there. He just doesn't sound supportive at all. A lot of growth takes place during the late teen years.

It might also be his school isn't offerring enough rigourous or exciting programs to attract the sorts of students he wishes his college had.