KeishoZil

I really liked this article:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1940395-1,00.html

One thing I think wasn't emphasized enough in the article though was the fact that parents aren't the only ones to blame. Parents have to be constantly worried that if they don't live up to our culture's view of what proper parenting is that we'll lose our children to family services or end up on the nightly news.

Our school district for example seems to have some pretty strange expectations. For example, I just got an email today for an invitation to a meeting about a particular program being offered at our high school. The first line was

"To all current 9th grade and 10th grade households. Attention Parents and Students:
Want to be prepared to compete in the global economy?"

Are you kidding me? My 14-year-old is supposed to be worried about her ability to compete in a global economy? That's after being told in 8th grade that having a 5 year plan about what they want to do after high school is essential to their success. I wonder how many adults had a 5 year plan in junior high and if they did how many of those actually stuck to that plan. I mean I'm not against setting goals, but this is over the top in my opinion.

They give homework to our kids in kindergarten. It's required by the district. Here's an example of one math assignment:

"Children like to be involved in making food choices for family meals. What are some of your family's favorite foods? Take a survey to find out. Mathematics Note: Collecting data helps children sort, count, record and visualize complex information."

They can't possibly expect Nadia to be able to create a survey on her own. So basically the homework is for me. What happened to 1+1=2; 2+2=4?

Anyway, this article gave me hope that maybe people are starting to recogize the weird way we're raising our kids now and that in the future there may be a shift back to something that feels a little more natural and normal.