Are children today being taught to fear?

[Templar 331]

You can be naturally afraid of heights without someone teaching you to be afraid. Being afraid of inanimate object that requires someone to actively abuse it to be of danger is not natural in my opinion.

I can see that. That's the reason you teach them the consequences of a weapon. Make them afraid of messing with it when they aren't supposed to. Then when they are old enough, teach them the right way to use it. If they are afraid of mishandling it because they could kill someone, they are less likely to mishandle it.

False, these have no correlation. Someone who is trained to use the climbing gear properly, and has experience on climbing and thus is not afraid of high places as s/he trusts her skills and respects the danger is far more likely to NOT have an accident.

The bold part is very important. If you trust your skills more than your fear, you are going to fail at some point. Accidents happen. The safety equipment is there in case there is an accident. Not to make you complacent. You can respect all you want. But if your not afraid of falling, at some point your going to forget to tie off when you were supposed to.

Bullshit. Someone who is acting out of fear is far more likely to cause accidents than someone who respects the possible danger and strives to act rationally in such a situation.

If your afraid to touch a gun, what are you going to do? Not touch the gun. If your afraid that holding a gun can kill someone, your not going to touch a gun. If your not worried about mishandling a gun because you respect it, there's a chance an accident can happen. I have lived around guns most of my life. I have seen people who respect guns have accidents. One of my grandpas shot a hole in the wall while cleaning a rifle. He fully respected guns. Taught gun safety and everything. But that one time, he forgot to check and make sure the gun was unloaded. Luckily no one was hurt and he only made a hole in the wall.

Being afraid of things occurs naturally, but fear should never be fed intentionally.

Being afraid of natural things is good. Being afraid of man made things doesn't come naturally. That's why we are taught to fear them.

[v2prwsmb45yhuq3wj23vpjk]

Exactly. You start off teaching the child fear. He/she will then respect the weapon. Then when he/she is old enough to use it, he/she will still have that fear and respect for it. The fear will be less than it was. But it will still be there making him/her respect the weapon.

That isn't what they are doing in these cases, though.

[THE Bigzoman]

In the same was as the fear in the OP is misguided, I think too that the amount of mistrust people are taught to have for everything is also overboard.

I disagree. Mistrust towards strangers until proven otherwise is imperative to protecting yourself, your loved ones, and your property.

[Deleted]

I think the protecting the youth of EVERYTHING in general is getting out of hand. They will have no life skills when they are older. To me one of the best things to learn life skills is sports. However nobody loses in youth sports now. My son plays soccer and its completely uncompetitive(nobody keeps score) but there was a game he played where they got eight goals and the opposing team got zero and the coach of the "losing" team asked if they could just take turns with the ball instead of actually play the sport the way its meant to be played(not like they do anyways its 3v3 with no goalies and the goals are about 2 feet tall and 2.5 feet wide. Losing is an integral part in life and these kids are being brought up like they will always be winners and get rewarded for mediocrity. If we think the US is bad now...just wait for these kids to take the country over when we are older.

I think protecting youth from everything only serves to eliminate common sense.

Babies learn by trial and error. If they fall off something they learn about height and falling and that they should avoid it. By making mistakes, they learn what is good and what is bad. If you are overprotective of your children then you protect them from any harm, but you also deny them the possibility to learn from their mistakes. If you don't understand the consequences of your own actions, it makes it very hard to understand the basics of life. Basically, common sense isn't common to you anymore. You're pretty much guaranteed a lifetime of trouble.

Now, we shouldn't do the total opposite either, letting kids fend for themselves entirely. There has to be a middle ground somewhere, but western society is a bit lost at the moment.

[Dedweight]

"All men are created equal..' Is a popular statement in political policy, in my mind it has less to do with details like physical prowess or personal beauty, and more to do with a foundation of rights. To me it means that we are all born into a guarantee of essential protections that allow us to grow into whatever we might be. We are born into the same social contract no matter our status or the details of our body.

I think Tommy Lee Jones said it best in the movie Lincoln with this line: "Thaddeus Stevens: I don't hold with equality in all things, just equality before the law, nothing more."

[brownl]

Today, the propensity for violence is more and more serious is relevant to this. I think it is better that we told them the risk of tools like gun and don't let them play it.

[Deleted]

This summons everything : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=w6Xtk7ALaUI

[Slant]

We have the same problems over here, take this for an example....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education...-stressed.html

Parents are not allowed to attend their own childrens sports day because it puts too much pressure on them to win, many schools do not even give out winners medals and trophies anymore, instead they all get "taking part" awards.

That's so funny, because.. whenever I did sports in front of a huge crowd, it would boost me. That extra adrenaline kick helped everyone here and there. Stressful? Well, it's adrenaline, what do you expect?

[Deleted]

*Blink*

That is one of the truest statements I have read on these forums. People are created equal. They don't remain so.

That's what they want you to think. Or rather, that's what you want to believe.

[Valerean]

I was actually asked to meet with my son's principal because of a game him and his buddies had invented, apparently called "Red Flag" - the gist of this game was that two groups of kids would take up positions round the back of their sports block, put two red gym shirts on sticks in opposing camps, and then run around trying to get said flags while pretending to shoot each other with their fingers.

The principal proceeded to ask me whether this was an 'appropriate' game for a ten year old, and whether he had access to any age-restricted material at home. I can't say what I was more shocked by - that she actually thought that ten year old boys playing capture the flag was inappropriate behavior, or that this was of merit enough to warrant a formal meeting. I was just absolutely speechless.

[Istypops]

I know a guy that is 20 years old now and he hasn't worked a day in his life and his parents are taking care of everything. Now he is trying to find a job but can't get it because he doesnt have any experience in anything, he's extremely insecure because he doesn't go anywhere and isn't in contact with people from his own age or older. He likes to play around with kids and does a little voluntary work at the Cub Scouts. Which is a good thing but doesn't add anything to an empty CV. You could say he's a 10 year old trapped in a 20 year old body, he isn't dumb or anything, he's actually quite educated (tho lacking a degree). I'm afraid for his future. His parents Always shielded him from everything and took care of all his problems.

I don't think shielding your children is a good thing, shield them from sexuality and mass murders and wars and stuff from a young age but once they are in the later years of primary school, early highschool, they're old enough to learn about the world, no need to tell them that babys still get delivered by a stork... (metaphore) winning and losing is part of life, teach them to deal with it at a young age and they will be a better person for it.

You can't succeed without failure.

[Palmz]

NJ school district is requiring their soccer players to wear soft helmets.

PA school district is banning Halloween because of it's religious undertone.

NY school bans any kind of ball on the playground during recess. Includes basketball, soccer, football.

O_o

[Dezerte]

I believe fear is a common tactic used when raising kids, and if anything it's becoming less and less common as our knowledge and accessibility to child fostering data increases.

[mvaliz]

Something I've noticed that isn't exactly what you're saying, but I think contributes to this "everyone is a winner" mentality is my nephew graduated kindergarden, then first grade and soon second. They actually hold ceremonies and give them mock diplomas for passing each grade through k-4. It's a little ridiculous (not to mention expensive because they are expected to wear the gown and cap).

Or perhaps they're simply implanting in their minds at an early age that College graduation is something to be desired for.

[Sorrior]

I know a guy that is 20 years old now and he hasn't worked a day in his life and his parents are taking care of everything. Now he is trying to find a job but can't get it because he doesnt have any experience in anything, he's extremely insecure because he doesn't go anywhere and isn't in contact with people from his own age or older. He likes to play around with kids and does a little voluntary work at the Cub Scouts. Which is a good thing but doesn't add anything to an empty CV. You could say he's a 10 year old trapped in a 20 year old body, he isn't dumb or anything, he's actually quite educated (tho lacking a degree). I'm afraid for his future. His parents Always shielded him from everything and took care of all his problems.

I don't think shielding your children is a good thing, shield them from sexuality and mass murders and wars and stuff from a young age but once they are in the later years of primary school, early highschool, they're old enough to learn about the world, no need to tell them that babys still get delivered by a stork... (metaphore) winning and losing is part of life, teach them to deal with it at a young age and they will be a better person for it.

You can't succeed without failure.

I'm 27 in a similar case though was medication that did more damage then my parents even.