<p>Both physically and psychologically? For example, granting the child's wishes so long as they weren't excessively money or time demanding? And <em>never</em> forcing the child to do anything, but rather, letting the child do everything in his/her own self-initiative, while letting the child know of things you may expect him/her to do by the end of a period of time? (instead of forcing him/her to do such things/learn such things at a particular time?)</p>
<p>This is something I'd say if I did it:</p>
<h1>“I want you to be happy for your lifetime. I want you to grow up with a minimum of psychological and physical pain. Society will be painful to you at times. But I hope you’ll learn how to cope with its painfulness without any training from me (and I do truly believe that you’ll be able to independently learn how to cope with it)."</h1>
<p>No, I’d probably make them go around dressed in garbage bags collecting cans on the street. And if they even look at me funny… well I’ll make good use of my belt, that’s for sure.</p>
<p>No, given my childhood, I am glad my parents weren’t too nice. I would have grew up very spoiled and not able to cope with some things. They gave me a callous in the heart that I am thankful for.</p>
<p>Then you’d be shortchanging him by not giving him any training.</p>
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<p>I wouldn’t coerce him into anything unless he was clearly insane and had demonstrated a lack of ability to interpret reality. I think of my children as autonomous human beings fully capable of rational thought. But I would offer him suggestions. Many suggestions.</p>
<p>Oh I meant, without any training in painfulness. (as in many parents believe that spanking their children and denying their children things helps them “build character” but I’m not convinced unless I see research that overwhelmingly shows otherwise)</p>
<p>Oh and if I HAD to teach them something I’d explicitly tell them “I want you to learn this in the least painful/most enjoyable way possible” - just as long as you learn it by XXX.</p>
<p>(and wow I just looked at the TCS website - one wonders why so many parents HAVE children who they essentially seem to treat as ppl to be indoctrinated…) =/</p>
<p>Let’s bring this into the realm of concrete reality, just for the fun of it.</p>
<p>Your kid has a minor disability that negligibly affects his academic performance. Would you let him use it to get extra time on the SATs?</p>
<p>Your kid always gets picked last for sports teams at school, and seems very distressed about it. He dreams of becoming a professional football player. What do you do?</p>
<p>Everyone else at school has the brand-new $80 Mighty-Morphin’-Power-Rangers doll. He wants one too. Do you cave?</p>
<p>Your kid brings home a girl who’s beautiful but completely incompatible with him. How would you minimize the pain of the eventual breakup?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t prevent him from doing it on his own initiative. I wouldn’t know if I’d be proactive about it until I come into such circumstance. Certainly there would be some reluctance. [at least I’d make him take practice tests under BOTH regular and extended time to see if he <em>really</em> improves first].</p>
<p>(but this is minor since it won’t get your child permanently in trouble. There are other cases where coercion could be the only possible option). </p>
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<p>Ask him about it - suggest him to improve by himself before allowing him to socially play football again. </p>
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<p>haha if I had children I’d homeschool them so I never imagined that question (that TCS website has scary examples of children caving into peer pressure). But I suppose so as long as I had adequate amounts of money.
[also pure homeschooling might not be ideal - there are more open-ended liberal types of schools - Will Wright went to one of them]</p>
<p>You should let your kids interact with people who actually know how to interact with people. Otherwise you’ll be shortchanging them for life. Your kids will grow up to be just like you. And you’ve missed out on a lot.</p>
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<p>You’d have to get him to a doctor (you presumably already have), get him diagnosed, and have his doctor sign a bunch of forms…he can’t do that alone. Not without parental consent.</p>
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<p>Getting picked for teams is standard fare in most PE classes. What would you do, sign a waiver letting him opt out of PE? He’d be teased, brutally.</p>
<p>Yes that’s true. I’m of the belief that social skills are partially genetic and partially environmental (in extreme cases it can be mostly genetic). Some people don’t need that much interaction to become <em>really</em> socially adept. The thing is - plenty of homeschooled kids have normal social skills - but their parents are a lot more sociable and interactive than I am. I could learn from their parents though. (after all my skills are still deficient even though I did go through public school as well - public school doesn’t help some people’s skills develop).</p>
<p>(eh nice thought experiment. I don’t think I want to have children after all :p)</p>
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<p>Hm it’s contextual. ADD, of course, is a contextual disorder too. </p>
<p>(at this point then it’s really too early for me to say anything definitively).</p>
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<p>it’s hard to say. I can’t be <em>that</em> sure that he would be brutally teased. but it may be more desirable since EITHER WAY he’s be brutally teased.</p>
<p>if he were too brutally teased, I’d just sign a waver to opt him out of school so that I could homeschool him.</p>
<p>I’d just do what my parents did since I like myself and am scared to try anything else. That means rare physical punishment and generally honorable and understandable system that treats kid like an adult.</p>
Whoa whoa whoa, and whoa. This is a very wrong statement. There are not Mighty Morphin Power Rangers “dolls”. They are action figures. And yes, I would cave, because the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were awesome, the original power rangers. All this new crap and new power rangers that kids are watching these days suck.</p>
<p>sorry to hijack the thread, but i don’t feel like its necessary to open a new thread for a few simple questions. fizix2, i just read an article about Caltech’s basketball team in TIME, and it mentioned that not all the team’s players even played basketball in high school. so i was just wondering, do they hold tryouts or something? also, the article never mentioned the girls team, so are they relatively good? and what about football or other sports?</p>
<p>I’m 99% sure it’s a just a tryout…basically if you know how to dribble decently and can make a 3, you’re on the team. Makes me sad I’m not gonna play ball there.</p>
<p>The entire 2006 squad featured only six players with high school varsity basketball experience – and none of them, according to the film, received offers to play for any other colleges. For dedicated head coach Roy Dow, “recruitment” at CalTech primarily consists of open tryouts, only the first step in a season full of uniquely frustrating challenges. It is the Beavers’ enthusiasm and drive in the face of such overwhelming odds, according to Greenwald, that makes their story so compelling – especially when you consider the daunting scholastic workload required of students at a school regularly ranked among the top five academic institutions in the world. “These kids are geniuses,” he says. “They know the plays inside and out, but they just can’t always get their bodies to do what their mind is telling them to do. The reality is that CalTech basketball is purer than Little League Baseball.” So far, “Quantum Hoops” has garnered a fair amount of attention on the festival circuit, including an Audience Choice Award at the 2007 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The film has also been shown several times on the CalTech campus and recently had its official theatrical debut at Laemmle’s One Colorado in Pasadena. Plans for a DVD release are currently in the works. Says Greenwald: “This is more or less my version of a science experiment.”</p>
<p>pain the outset of real-world education. without pain, a person does not learn. without pain, a person does not grow mentally and emotionally. without pain, life is not life.</p>
(that TCS website has scary examples of children caving into peer pressure). But I suppose so as long as I had adequate amounts of money.