So, what was your childhood like and how would you compare it to childhood experienced today? Are there things about the time in which you grew up that you miss and things that you don't miss? What are the pros and cons of the time in which you grew up compared to childhood as it is experienced today? Do you think children today have it easier or harder or both? How?
Children have it much harder than I did when I was a child.
My generation had a great deal of time for ourselves...to be alone with ourselves...and without any electronic distractions. Children these days are greatly indoctrinated with belief systems outside of themselves as provided by endless choices of media.
I had pets and animals and horses while growing up...and I greatly miss the Horses.
I grew up in a time where children could use their own creativity a lot more than children do these days living in a similar environment as mine was.
We didn't even have TV until I was 8...and there were only 3 channels...and it was only on for certain periods of the day. I was not inundated with social media and electronics to shape my mind. We played outside a lot. Learned about Nature. For example since I lived in the Flatlands I was fascinated by how Water moved on the Earth. When it would rain I'd build rivers and dams between the large puddles of water and watch how it flowed.
We built forts, clubhouses, ships to float on water, fishing poles, kites, swings, and all sorts of things I've forgotten because they failed or whatever. The point it we could experiment will all sorts of things.
Once I got my first horse at age 9 I was responsible for her care and training. I taught myself how to ride...fell off of her a gazillion times...and climbed right back up on her. I didn't ride with a helmet or knee pads or a safety harness at all. My parents assumed if I got hurt it taught me a lesson. ...and believe me I learned. I also learned that one may get hurt...feel the pain...get a bruise...and NOT need drugs of any kind to get through it. I mean the most we had when I was growing up was Aspirin. Period.
At age 10 my Dad took me to the Library in the big city and I checked out books on how to train horses to jump. I constructed jumps, modified the horse tack, and trained her how to jump so as not to hurt the horse. I was in heaven! I also worked my ass off too... in a good way...because by age 11 I had 5 horses and when my cousins came we held Circus events where we'd ride standing up on the ponies. Hahahahaha... we all fell off a lot.
We lived in a heavily wooded area and had to pick up fallen limbs and sticks and stuff every year. So we learned how to build fires...how to burn wood efficiently..and how to melt marshmallows and hot dogs. I am very skilled at stacking wood and burning trash. Hahahahaha.... That doesn't go well on a resume' though...does it. :tongue:
We rode bikes down the road. Killed poisonous snakes. Almost got our fingers bit off by Snapping Turtles. I've sat in a bed of fire ants and didn't know it till it I was halfway covered in them. We had an above ground back yard pool and learned how to hold my breath for over a minute under water. I loved sitting on the pool floor surrounded by water....
We played outside at night with hundreds of fireflies dancing all around. We sang songs to the record player and danced till our elders laughed themselves silly. We watched our parents play card games and talk long in to the night. My cousins and I wrote letters to each other (they lived many hours away from me) when we were young and I learned to look forward to the mail.
I could go on and on about my childhood.
In my opinion we learned critical reasoning skills by our actions of trial and error. We built things. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn't. But we learned by what we actually did...not out of a book or because someone said so.
Children these days spend a great deal of their time sitting still and learning by wrote memorization. I mean they start school by age 3. We didn't start school till age 6. There is a whole lot of brain development that takes place between the ages of 3 and 6.... critical years of indoctrination by the public education system designed to mold people into robots and "good" citizens.
Any chance I got to talk with a Mom about her young child I urged them to postpone school. It's often difficult though as the US wants every person in this country over 18 to work...and not stay home and take care of a child.