Reckless endangerment of impressionable children

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sardog1

sardog1

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How on earth are these kids ever going to learn that cold rain is life-threatening, that swamps and ticks are to be avoided at all costs, and that a life spent outdoors will never teach you the skills to succeed in the competition for bargains on Black Friday?

"For Forest Kindergartners, Class Is Back to Nature, Rain or Shine"
 
Thanks for the link! Its great to see schools using the land around them as outdoor classrooms! I know at my kids school, they do much of their science learning in the wetlands near the school. I went out there with the class a few times in the spring, and it was really great to see the kids out there, telling me all the different birds we were seeing, and identifying trees :)
We got deep into the wetland, and then the teacher asked to kids to find their "special places", whereupon the kids each went to a spot they had picked out as their own, and pulled out their journals and started writing about the trip.

Not once, did the teacher have to speak to anyone in the group about behavior.

I run an after school program in the early spring at the school where we go snowshoeing and tracking around the school, and what I have been amazed at is that it is often the kids who have the hardest time socially inside the school, who thrive once we get outside.

Thanks again for posting the link!
 
sardog1 said:
How on earth are these kids ever going to learn that cold rain is life-threatening, that swamps and ticks are to be avoided at all costs, and that a life spent outdoors will never teach you the skills to succeed in the competition for bargains on Black Friday?
Click to expand...

Let alone qualify you for your own reality TV show...

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:


Figures it's at a private school.

I'd be shocked (pleasantly) to see something like this take root (ha!) in the CT or NY public skool systems.
 
They do have a building, though they spend a lot of time outside it :p

31689685.JPG
 
At Paul Smith's, we went outside for class, rain or shine, 70 degrees or -30 degrees. The students who didn't like being outside dropped out pretty quickly. :)
 
Are you people out of your freaking minds.

Kids walking around in the rain, carrying sticks, using saws (sharp pointy things), standing in puddles. OUTSIDE IN THE (GASP) WOODS IN THE RAIN. What are you sickos going to have them doing next. Whitling with knifes or learning to eat food from the woods, both animal and vegetable. You sick, sick bastids.

There is no way this is going to end without at least one or more teachers being charged with child endangerment. Mark my words.


:rolleyes::D
Keith

Thanks for the post Sardog.
 
I live near a Waldorf school and have been very impressed with the program, the students, teachers, and required parent involvement. They do have a mandatory 3 hrs outside.


I went to their Christmas craft fair two years ago, and it was amazing to see this large group of people of all ages enjoying a very bitter cold windy day outside. There was a nice bonfire, hot chilly, and much fun and frolick. Everyone appeared so happy and outgoing. The more you got involved, the more you forgot how cold you were.

Their curriculum is very unique and all learn crafts of all kinds, farming, languages, horsmanship, music, etc.

I would have given my right arm to go to a school like this. They recently added a high school to this campus.

The kids were very polite, respectful, and were a pleasure to be around. They are bright, motivated, and disciplined.

I know of one person whose two boys caused repeated disruptions and the parents were required to remove them from the school.

It's a great example of "where there is a will, there's a way".

They have wonderful festivals to. From what I know of the people who have children there, they have no TV's in the home. They have a lot of family time and reading, hiking, horseback riding, etc.

It was wonderful to see such enthusiasm.
 
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Maddy said:
I would have given my right arm to go to a school like this. They recently added a high school to this campus.

The kids were very polite, respectful, and were a pleasure to be around. They are bright, motivated, and disciplined.


They have wonderful festivals to. From what I know of the people who have children there, they have no TV's in the home. They have a lot of family time and reading, hiking, horseback riding, etc.

It was wonderful to see such enthusiasm.
Click to expand...

All the above is good -- there are things I don't like about Waldorf, though - they place a lot of emphasis on fairies...as in, really believing in them, not pretend... they also don't want kids to read until the age of 6...which is fine unless you have a natural early reader who wants to read nonstop...

The outside time, however, is great...wish ALL schools would implement such a policy.
 
one word: CULT

looks and sounds that way to me... getting outside is never a bad thing....but not sure I like the baggage...

anyone else seeing the cult theme - or are we just focused on the "outside" thing...
 
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The theme I'm seeing is a that of a sad reflection of our times whereby parents are afraid to let their kids play outside. To say, we used to do the outdoor thing on our own time, apart from school.

Anyone else here have parents who ordered them to "go outside and play... and don't return until dinnertime!!" (yes, even at kindergarten age, IIRC). :mad:

Puts a smile on my face to think what my dad's reaction would've been to forking over $7000 for kindergarten tuition. Times sure have changed...
 
Stinkyfeet said:
Anyone else here have parents who ordered them to "go outside and play... and don't return until dinnertime!!" (yes, even at kindergarten age, IIRC). :mad:

$7000 for kindergarten tuition.
Click to expand...

Hahaha!

My mother used to send me out to play in mid winter when I was but a wee and tender laddee of the age of 7. The January temps in good old Manitoba were in the negative 20 range on a warm day.

I experienced the discomfort of cold feet and cold hands.

I was traumatized beyond all repair. After I complained (in triplicate) to the Children's Aid Society she had to knit me a pair of mittens.

Seven Thousand Dollars seems like a lot of green. Why not send them to Manitoba for some inexpensive hardening?
 
Stinkyfeet said:
The theme I'm seeing is a that of a sad reflection of our times whereby parents are afraid to let their kids play outside. To say, we used to do the outdoor thing on our own time, apart from school.

Anyone else here have parents who ordered them to "go outside and play... and don't return until dinnertime!!" (yes, even at kindergarten age, IIRC). :mad:

Puts a smile on my face to think what my dad's reaction would've been to forking over $7000 for kindergarten tuition. Times sure have changed...
Click to expand...

THE reason I insisted on a place in NH is so that I can do exactly that -- turn the kids out and have them roam for hours. We have an acre of woods in which they can roam unsupervised. May not sound like a lot, but it's a hell of a lot more than the postage stamp crappy space we have in Somerville (next to a train track).
 
Neil said:
I was traumatized beyond all repair.
Click to expand...

Ahhhh...the genesis of this "Lester" character is becoming apparent. ;)


Neil said:
Seven Thousand Dollars seems like a lot of green. Why not send them to Manitoba for some inexpensive hardening?
Click to expand...

Wouldn't that be, like, CN$12,000...? :D


Stinkyfeet said:
Anyone else here have parents who ordered them to "go outside and play... and don't return until dinnertime!!" (yes, even at kindergarten age, IIRC).
Click to expand...

<raises hand>

Growing up on a farm in the Leatherstocking Region, on weekends and in summer, my little brother and I would eat breakfast and then go outside for the entire day. The only caveat was to make sure we got back inside in time for dinner.

-We didn't have 500 channels (of crap) on the tele. Four channels -- ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS.

-There was no Interwebs.

-xBox? Wii? PlayStation37? Puh-lease! We had Pong. 'Nuff said.

-Aside from Little League games, our afternoons/weekends were not scheduled full of development activities.

-"Play dates?" WTH? If one of the neighbor kids wanted to come play Army with us, he rode his damned bike over and knocked on our door. (True, our closest neigbor was 3/4 mile away...) Our parents didn't manage our social calendars.

-Oh, yeah...there were those little things called "chores." Not take-out-the-garbage-once-a-week stuff that my kids roll their eyes about. REAL chores, like feeding 20 head of cattle, cleaning stalls, stacking hay up in the hay mow in August (HOT!), fixing broken barbed wire fencing, chasing an escaped cow through field and forest for hours on end. (OK, that was actually kinda fun...)

Different times, fer sure. :rolleyes:


Stinkyfeet said:
Puts a smile on my face to think what my dad's reaction would've been to forking over $7000 for kindergarten tuition. Times sure have changed...
Click to expand...

Having had both my kids in private school earlier in their educational years, I can only say that a good local public school system is a wonderful asset!
 
Back when I was a kid, when Mom and Dad sent you out in the cold all day and told you not to come inside until dinner, it was just bad parenting. Now people are paying $7,000 to have other people keep their kids shivering AND the parents are expected to participate. Curious, very curious :p
 
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