She's back. How good for YOU
Is life all it seems? Is living in ignorance better than knowing? Knowing about death and cruelty and violence and all that real stuff, that negative stuff that permeates our existence and is hidden from us from birth and then suddenly revealed when we are older. People wonder why teenage suicide rates are so high (no I’m not suicidal, I’m just saying, societal cause and effect) when they brainwash our youth to believe everything is find and dandy and happy and good and we love and help all when people’s homes are being blown apart by our military and others are starving to death because of an incompetent government we put into place and then did not correctly support or think through. Famine, disease, cruelty. They infect our world. As children we are brainwashed to not know about them. Why? It just makes it harder when we find out. And then, when we find out all that happiness was superficial and fake, we become so suspicious of happiness. How do you know when it’s real and when it’s a superficial fantasy, either imposed by your own doing or by outside forces you gratefully let in to numb you?Those of us who went through the “sex and death, doom and gloom” we are better people in some ways. We know the truth, we are educated and know how to think for ourselves, and have broken free of that mold we were forced into as children. But what now? How do we incorporate this into our lives without becoming bitter pessimists who can only see the negative and bad?
How do we learn to combine the blissful blanket truth with the truth of cruelty and human drama?
Hello Deep Thinking Kelly. I've missed you. I hope we talk more often.
posted by kellyisdelightful @ 11:32 PM
8 Comments:
Well, would you tell your four- or five-year-old child that innocent people die on a daily basis? That bombs can blow your limbs apart? That people in Africa are so hungry all they are is bones?
Not only would they not understand, but they would grow up with a skewed sense of reality and would see everything pessimistically.
I think finding out those things about the world are all just a part of growing up and discovering who you are and what you want to be. Sometimes they help you make decisions, or at least be more politically or socially active.
I'm not saying we should tell them that. But I'm saying we shouldn't lie and pretend everything is just fine and dandy when its not. I mean...in 3rd grade did we learn that Columbus killed and enslaved hundreds of Indians? Or that the Puritans banished heretics and tried to convert everyone and killed the "savage" Indians? No we learn about a brave explorer and the hard first winter and Squanto and the first Thanksgiving. They leave out the part where the settlers later went and killed half the Indians and stole their land. I mean...I just don't think lying to kids is a good idea. It causes them to lack trust when they are older and learn the truth. Like Santa Claus. That's a lie. And a really dumb one too btw.
Well...you can go ahead and tell your third-grader that Columbus killed lots of Indians and that Santa Claus isn't real. I just think kids shouldn't be exposed to things like that. Isn't it what childlike innocence is all about? Are you pissed off that you didn't learn that the Pilgrims killed the Indians or that you were lied to about Santa? I'm not.
I still love you. Even if we don't agree on this topic.
I'm pissed off that we make up happy stories and lie to kids. I'm talking about principle here. I'm not saying tell them about Columbus and the Indians. I'm saying don't make up a story about it.
Then what would you tell them?
how old are we when we learn about the Holocaust? because whatever that age is, I think that's when we should learn about the Indian genocide as well. We also learn about the slavery at a young age. I think that when we tell them, we should tell them the truth about why they came and how they were successful and found the new world but that they viewed the inhabitants as lesser people because they were racists and then the people fought about who's land was whose. Which is the truth, but not the whole truth. Why leave out the genocide of the Indians when we learn about the genocide of the Jews? Genocide is genocide.
completely off topic because (hey I'm admitting it) it's too early in the morning for me to properly think about the corruption of America or whatnot...
what is BAH?
:)
americans have done a lot of bad things to american-indians. but here's the thing: not that I agree with this, but part of elementary education is to teach us to be good citizens, and in the government's mind that means everyone starts off by being taught to take pride in what america is. that's why we say the pledge of allegiance and sing the national anthem. Then later on, when we become older and more educated, we can also learn about some of the things we (as a collective american United States of America body) have gotten wrong so that one can make a decision for themselves.
i don't know; it's a lot easier to go from optimistic to pessimistic than vice versam, and the fact is, the current stereotypical elementary school teacher is not going to put into the heads of children that our country has gone wrong in many areas ofther than "slavery" or "The Civil War"...
Post a Comment
<< Home