if mama has to go through labor...
On the Great Trek eastward last spring, we stopped in Moab and Arches to get some hiking and biking in. Beautiful country, great fun. Well, we were walking up a steepish trail past some cool petroglyphs and toward some of the arches when I experienced one of those great moments of insight. This trail being a popular one in a national park, there were lots of families meandering up it. At least the parents were meandering; the kids were circling like my dad's springer spaniel on the portage trail. I mean, I am in the prime of life, relatively active, and all that, but even so there is no way in communism that could keep pace with those little circling supercharged-batteries-on-two-legs. So a thought came to me...
Why do we take those kids when they love nothing more than pure motion, try to stack them into classrooms and rows of desks and try to get them to listen and read and take in information? Meanwhile, their parents who likely just want a few moments of rest for contemplation have to sit in a cubicle or on an assembly line and move repetitively all day. It just doesn't make sense.
So we desperately need legislation requiring child labor. Think about it. When a kid is weaned and walking, about the age we would shuffle them off to school, we give them a job. They've got boundless energy and nimble little fingers. Then, after 30 or 40 years of solid work experience, they retire at the prime of life, armed with myriad questions to work out in their ensuing education, for which they have already saved up tuition. If necessary, we could give them a couple years of primary school before sending them into the workforce, enough to acquire basic math and elementary reading, or they could learn these on-the-job.
China is already employing this strategy to a limited extent and their economy is growing at something like 10% per annum. Ours is inching along at something like 2%. Think what would happen if we one-upped them and institutionalized their shady little secret weapon of child labor.
On a somewhat less serious note, imagine how greatly we could decrease our dependency on fossil fuels if we simply installed tot-sized hamster wheels instead of chairs in elementary school classrooms. Give each kid a coke and some zingers, and... bam! energy crisis eliminated.
Why do we take those kids when they love nothing more than pure motion, try to stack them into classrooms and rows of desks and try to get them to listen and read and take in information? Meanwhile, their parents who likely just want a few moments of rest for contemplation have to sit in a cubicle or on an assembly line and move repetitively all day. It just doesn't make sense.
So we desperately need legislation requiring child labor. Think about it. When a kid is weaned and walking, about the age we would shuffle them off to school, we give them a job. They've got boundless energy and nimble little fingers. Then, after 30 or 40 years of solid work experience, they retire at the prime of life, armed with myriad questions to work out in their ensuing education, for which they have already saved up tuition. If necessary, we could give them a couple years of primary school before sending them into the workforce, enough to acquire basic math and elementary reading, or they could learn these on-the-job.
China is already employing this strategy to a limited extent and their economy is growing at something like 10% per annum. Ours is inching along at something like 2%. Think what would happen if we one-upped them and institutionalized their shady little secret weapon of child labor.
On a somewhat less serious note, imagine how greatly we could decrease our dependency on fossil fuels if we simply installed tot-sized hamster wheels instead of chairs in elementary school classrooms. Give each kid a coke and some zingers, and... bam! energy crisis eliminated.
posted by yonderincarp at 14:57
2 Comments:
Interesting point of view...Maybe today's teachers just need to cut the kids some slack and realize that they themselves cannot even sit still in a desk for 8 hours straight...without talking...I think the classroom runs a lot smoother when you don't expect more out of your students than you are capable of yourself.
that's a great point.
maybe there are some creative ways to reorganize things to sort of harness all that energy.
have you seen anyone try?
Post a Comment
<< Home