So apparently, kids are smarter these days...
January 11th 2007 02:05
What a bunch of total bullshit.
I keep running across articles in newspapers and magazines going on and on about how kids today are just so much smarter and more sophisticated than we were. For example, I read an article jsut the other day that was going on about how kids are right into money now, and how when they get money the spend it on far more sophisiticated things than bikes and shit like we did - they buy playstations and i-pods and other technological gadgets. This article used this as its evidence to make the claim that kids now are more sophisticated - they don't buy pushbikes and footballs - they buy electronics.
Well, I've got some news for you, jack: It's still just a friggin' toy. Whether it is a football or an i-pod, it's just another toy. Having a shiny ball does not make the owner of the ball any better or smarter or more sophisticated. It's the toys that are more sophisticated, the owners are just using the same old skills and ideas we have for generations - hand/eye co-ordination, manual dexterity etc. However the difference is they spend a lot more money to do so. It does not require a tower of intellect to operate an i-pod. It does not need a genius to work out how to play tekken 5 or whatever.
Furthermore, I keep reading about how kids today are just so much more intelligent that we were when we were their age, they cite numbers and some surveys that have been taken, and other bullshit. Well, I work with kids a lot, it's what my job is about - dealing with sugared to the eyeballs 8-12 year olds. They are not these near-geniuses that the media would have you believe. They are just normal kids, bright, I guess, but just normal kids who have the same kind of intelligence and sharpness that I or any of you had when we were younger. They are easily fooled by the simplest things, just like I was, they are easily exicted and don't have a real clear grasp on language yet, their spelling - when I see them write anything down - is a little off. No big deal, they're kids and they're learning.
Just not at the hypersonic rates that I read about in the media. Or see on T.V. shows like 'Australia's smartest kid', or whatever. Today's kids are no more amazing or special than you or I were when we were their age. Today's kids are no more sophisticated than we were. Today's kids are no smarter.
See, the more I read this kind of shit or see it on T.V. and films the more I start to think that it's not really about how smart kids are. This big fuss we make is not about them, it's about us, the current generation of parents, who have been brought up to believe they were gonna be heroes, but find themselves stuck behind a desk day after droning day. What is our special purpose? It seems we lost our destiny - oh wait! - no we didn't! Our destiny was in fact to spawn a new race of super-sophisticated, hyperintelligent super-beings. The more we praise our kids, the more we praise ourselves. It's like that dad who lives vicariously through his sons sporting achievements, only it's across a whole generation.
Now we have 11 year-olds stressing over taking entrance exams to gain entrance to prestigious high schools. I saw a photo of a kid about 11 years old sitting over an exam, a look of sheer turmoil and worry stretched across his chubby babyfat face. What gives us the fucking right to do this to this, and other kids? We bang on and on about the magical sanctity of childhood, and then go and fucking blatantly rob them of it. No child should have the stressed look that was upon that child's face. It's fucking unfair and it needs to stop.
Stop telling our kids theyre so fucking great. Let them live their fucking lives however the fuck they want, let them just be themselves - NOT what we think they should be. The further you build them up, the harder the fall into the same inevitable rut you're stuck in will be. If your child is special, then he or she will show the world that they are special, that's the very nature of 'special' people - they stand out from the rest of us cattle.
Your child is normal, just like you.
I keep running across articles in newspapers and magazines going on and on about how kids today are just so much smarter and more sophisticated than we were. For example, I read an article jsut the other day that was going on about how kids are right into money now, and how when they get money the spend it on far more sophisiticated things than bikes and shit like we did - they buy playstations and i-pods and other technological gadgets. This article used this as its evidence to make the claim that kids now are more sophisticated - they don't buy pushbikes and footballs - they buy electronics.
Well, I've got some news for you, jack: It's still just a friggin' toy. Whether it is a football or an i-pod, it's just another toy. Having a shiny ball does not make the owner of the ball any better or smarter or more sophisticated. It's the toys that are more sophisticated, the owners are just using the same old skills and ideas we have for generations - hand/eye co-ordination, manual dexterity etc. However the difference is they spend a lot more money to do so. It does not require a tower of intellect to operate an i-pod. It does not need a genius to work out how to play tekken 5 or whatever.
Furthermore, I keep reading about how kids today are just so much more intelligent that we were when we were their age, they cite numbers and some surveys that have been taken, and other bullshit. Well, I work with kids a lot, it's what my job is about - dealing with sugared to the eyeballs 8-12 year olds. They are not these near-geniuses that the media would have you believe. They are just normal kids, bright, I guess, but just normal kids who have the same kind of intelligence and sharpness that I or any of you had when we were younger. They are easily fooled by the simplest things, just like I was, they are easily exicted and don't have a real clear grasp on language yet, their spelling - when I see them write anything down - is a little off. No big deal, they're kids and they're learning.
Just not at the hypersonic rates that I read about in the media. Or see on T.V. shows like 'Australia's smartest kid', or whatever. Today's kids are no more amazing or special than you or I were when we were their age. Today's kids are no more sophisticated than we were. Today's kids are no smarter.
See, the more I read this kind of shit or see it on T.V. and films the more I start to think that it's not really about how smart kids are. This big fuss we make is not about them, it's about us, the current generation of parents, who have been brought up to believe they were gonna be heroes, but find themselves stuck behind a desk day after droning day. What is our special purpose? It seems we lost our destiny - oh wait! - no we didn't! Our destiny was in fact to spawn a new race of super-sophisticated, hyperintelligent super-beings. The more we praise our kids, the more we praise ourselves. It's like that dad who lives vicariously through his sons sporting achievements, only it's across a whole generation.
Now we have 11 year-olds stressing over taking entrance exams to gain entrance to prestigious high schools. I saw a photo of a kid about 11 years old sitting over an exam, a look of sheer turmoil and worry stretched across his chubby babyfat face. What gives us the fucking right to do this to this, and other kids? We bang on and on about the magical sanctity of childhood, and then go and fucking blatantly rob them of it. No child should have the stressed look that was upon that child's face. It's fucking unfair and it needs to stop.
Stop telling our kids theyre so fucking great. Let them live their fucking lives however the fuck they want, let them just be themselves - NOT what we think they should be. The further you build them up, the harder the fall into the same inevitable rut you're stuck in will be. If your child is special, then he or she will show the world that they are special, that's the very nature of 'special' people - they stand out from the rest of us cattle.
Your child is normal, just like you.
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Comment by Questionable Content
Amen brother. Ihave to agree with you there...although I don't want to make it sound like I'm forced to.
Childhood seems to be a different thing these days. Every Goddamn time I see a kid that age dialling a mobile phone, I shudder. 10 years ago, my parents trusted me to walk home from school, without having to provide me with a mobile phone (generally the same weight as I was, in 1997) to make sure they were OK every step of the way.
Parents need to stop pandering their kids and babying them through their teenage years. How the fuck are they going to learn a thing about life, success, failure, pain and happiness if they're having their asses powdered every step of the way?
Let 'em be kids, learn their own lessons and enjoy their childhood years, for fuck's sake. I wish I could go back to a simpler time, not having to worry about how I'm going to buy a beer this fortnight after paying rent, food and car loan payments.
Oh, to be 11 years old again.