It is interesting how different subjects all tend to run together. I guess that is what most big systems are so interconnected. You know me. I always see most things as being very simple and I also like to connect the dots to get an even better picture of things. I have blogged on our education system in the past and now I want to take on our kids directly.
Have you noticed how many important inventions have come from people from farms or rural areas? Given that there are so few people in the rural areas, if they contribute a significant amount, it has me mean there are more inventive people as a percentage in these rural areas vs big cities. Follwing me? When the USA was formed, it was almost 99% rural people. Most of our founding fathers were farmers, but not now. That was the differance between rural people and urban people? We need to understand that and see if we have lost something as we urbanized.
Historically, rural people were told that they were missing something by living in the "sticks". Culture was in the cities, not on the farms and small towns. Kids from the farm were called "hay seeds" and were looked down upon by city kids who claimed to have "street smarts". Did you ever think about what kids meant by "street smarts"? The farm kids knew how to make or produce things while the city kids knew how to "game" it away from them and take advantage of the honesty of the farm kids. Is that the way you understood it? Compared to rural kids, what did the city kids produce? On the farm, kids had tools and were able to make their own tools. Did you ever watch some skilled person work at a forge making iron tools? If you did, it was not in a major urban area. All rural communities had blacksmiths to shoe horses and many farmers did their own shoeing. If a kids is exposed to tools and real work at a young age, they learn to accept this as "natural". What does a city kid learn as "natural"? Are you starting to see the problem?
I have used the example of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl before to show how people who are depressed, but who have heart can and do climb out of their situation. It is not only the adults who have a difficult time, it is also the kids. They work harder and at an earlier age than more well off kids, and what is the long term affect? It has been my experiance that "most" kids who have it easy as children do not once they are older start to work "harder" or are more diciplined. How many kids who did not do well in grammer school or high school went on to do very well in college or life. If the hard word did not start early in life it didn't start later.
I know alot of kids who went into the Army after high school and then did very well in life. Now why was that? The Army did not mess around. It required each person to work and work hard. The Army did not allow a lot of idle time for young people to get into trouble as in soft civilian life. How about kids who just came out of WWII or Korea. Did they have it soft? What did they do when they got out with their lives. Who were the ones who got us to the moon. Were they city kids who had "street smarts"? I don't think so. The people today who are cashing in on the. so called, "street smarts" are the labor unions. Think about it and tell me if you agree. What do the labor unions produce? Nothing, they just know how to "game" the system. As we have urbanized, more and more people are trying to "game" our systems with "street smarts". See how it works?
How many sucessful people do you know who had "news paper routes" as kids? I know a lot and I too wanted to have a paper route, but lived on a farm where it was not possible. How many similar people do you know who sold "Fuller Brush"? I know a lot of these too. Did you ever ask yourself why so many sucessful people had news paper routes or sold Fuller Brush? Most did it when they were young and I think that is the key. Ask yourself how old you were when you earned your first dollar from someone who was not part of your family? It has been my observation that this age has gotten older and older over time and that is the problem.
I know of parents who are always busy taking their kids here and there to be with or play with other kids of their own age. Mothers often think of themselves as taxiis for their kids and it is true. I think that 99% of this is a mistake and a waste of everyones time. Our kids do not need more face to face time with other kids who are as dumb as they are. They need more time with family adults doing real work. I know parents who feel that electronic games are great because they keep kids occupied. Is keeping a kid occupied what parents are supposed to do. 99% of electronic games are deadening to the mind. They have nothing to do with the real world and the kids relationship with it. Kids need work and they need it at an early age. How about churning butter. I know kids who were less than 45 years old who could take care of the chore just fine. When we were more rural and during the "transition" from rural to urban, we did very well, but when the "transition" stopped, we started going down hill. How do we get that dynamic back? That is the challenge. Look at it as a stream that was flowing fast compared to one that is stagnat. It was the "flow" that made the USA what it "was". Think of the "flow" after WWII? Now that was a "flow" and what were the results? Can we get back what ever that was? I think it is "hard work" and at an earlier age. We run schools far too long and should demand that our kid learn by age 12 or 15 years what we now allow them to learn by age 18. Demand more and we will get more. Demand less and we will get less.
