Dingo the Dissident

THE BLOG OF DISQUIET : Qweir Notions, an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since 2008 .

Monday 18 April 2016

Columnist Adam Gopnik on the normal and systematic abuse of children.

"...We take it for granted that waking children and teenagers early in the morning
and having them sit still and listen to [often ill-taught or pointless] lessons
for 8 hours a day, and then doimg 3 or 4 more hours of homework
is essential and even useful.
But all the evidence suggests that this is the worst way to educate anyone
aty any age, let alone the young, who need as much sleep, freedom of mind
and creative time as they can get."

Download his talk here.

Footnote: On Sundays and school holidays I often slept long and late - sometimes until noon.
But then I had often been reading Zola, Turgenev, Grass or Dostoyevsky the night before,
thus building up my freedom of mind.
   An eight-year-old I knew said to his mother: School is ruining my life.
   The destructive "education" (or brainwashing) of children is yet another reason to eschew reproduction.

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