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diff --git a/content/entry/organization-let-grow.md b/content/entry/organization-let-grow.md index 2b80ee0..a2901ff 100644 --- a/content/entry/organization-let-grow.md +++ b/content/entry/organization-let-grow.md @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ I was the chief architect behind the "chaos" in the classroom and quite satisfie # The Swine Flu On a different day, I was outside on the playground. Some other student had come up with a pandemic-like game similar to tag. It started with one "infected" person. That person tagged someone else who then became infected. So on and so forth until everyone was infected, and then we restarted. It was a fun twist on the game of tag and unlike tag, it had a definite ending. Given the timing, I think the disease was supposed to be [swine flu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_swine_flu_pandemic) since that was happening at around the same time I was in grade school. -The playground monitor who watched over us, a woman probably between the ages of thirty and fifty at the time, told us that the swine flu game was no longer allowed. I never learned why not. It didn't make sense to me as a kid. It was just a modified game of tag where we simulated a pandemic that was already of concern anyways. +The playground monitor who watched over us, a woman probably between the ages of thirty and fifty at the time, told us that the swine flu game was no longer allowed. I never learned why not. It didn't make sense to me as a kid. It was just a modified game of tag where we simulated a pandemic that was already of concern anyway. I now suspect that, if pressed, the playground monitor would have said something to the effect of "that game isn't appropriate", because people were getting sick from the swine flu. But what does "inappropriate" even mean? We were kids with no bad intentions and it was a fun game. I suspect if we called it something different, the monitor wouldn't have had a problem with the game. Looking back, it still makes no sense to me why that game was canceled for us. @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ As time went on and I grew up, I realized more and more that those childhood exp Children are more resilient than they get credit for. They're not nearly as fragile as modern parents make them out to be. They don't need constant supervision. But it's not just the parents' faults. Through my experience working with children, I was pressured to coddle the children, to not let them do anything remotely risky. It wasn't good for me and it wasn't good for them. Instead of allowing children to work out conflicts on their own, I was expected to constantly interfere, under the threat of losing my job. They never learned conflict resolution and I was always exhausted. -This is all in stark contrast to how our grandparents were raised. They weren't babied. They were allowed to be free and independent and have real childhoods without child protective services being called. In the span of a few decades, we've went from allowing children to play freely to coddling them to the point that they learn none of the skills they need to be functional adults. +This is all in stark contrast to how our grandparents were raised. They weren't babied. They were allowed to be free and independent and have real childhoods without child protective services being called. In the span of a few decades, we've gone from allowing children to play freely to coddling them to the point that they learn none of the skills they need to be functional adults. # Let Grow A while back, I found an organization that's working to fight against these absolutely stupid trends robbing children and parents of the lives they deserve. It's called [Let Grow](https://letgrow.org). They have a lot of good information on their website, such as [recommended books](https://letgrow.org/books/) on the subject, [research](https://letgrow.org/facts-research/), advocacy to change the laws surrounding [child abuse and neglect](https://letgrow.org/legislative-toolkit/), and [educational resources for schools and communities](https://letgrow.org/program/educators/). |