It's the greatest gift my mom gave me. She loved to read and she passed that love to me. I'm the only person I know with a physical bookcase (full, lol) And, the only rule I give myself is this: If I read something fun, I have to read something serious after to learn or understand something more thoroughly or brand new. There are no limits on what I will read.
Same here. My father successfully passed to me his love of reading, and I've always been surrounded by books since before I could walk. I currently have the bulk of my library in a very old storage unit waiting for me to build the library building here at the homestead, but somehow I have managed to acquire around a thousand new books from garage sales in the meantime, and they're currently causing a space problem in my storage shed.
Great post for a Friday. I finished starship troopers and really enjoyed it. What it has to do with today's post is that I spent an arduous evening really evaluating my parenting! It would be easy to dismiss the teachers' discussion of teaching the puppy as backward and unenlightened. But reading those ideas in the way they were presented had a wholly different effect than they would in an academic paper or popular parenting book (and likely wouldn't be there to begin with) It definitely went tap tap tapping on my walls and will probably stay with me more concretely as the kids age and we're presented with new challenges.
Also, I didn't realize the decade it was published, thinking it was a few decades more recent which was also intriguing given some of its predictive commentary.
Also, FWIW, I'm not in Heinlein's camp on corporal punishment per se (I'm reticent about it and tend to think different children respond well to different sorts of conditioning methods), but his basic point of "communicate in a language they can understand" is one that could use a LOT more circulation in an era where parents try to rationalize with children who don't yet have the background or neurological development for it. Doing the rationalization thing can encourage some of that development, sure, but it doesn't communicate, and when you come down to it the purpose of any punishment is to communicate in a way that cannot be ignored.
Yes agreed, because I said so does have a time and a place. A level of authority and absoluteness can also communicate a level of safety and trust I think.
And my main take away was less about corporal punishment per se because yes, agreed, children absolutely respond to different "feedbacks" differently, and more about the idea of setting people up for failure, or expecting behaviors out of them one has not taught, or enforced. This is less about specific "techniques" as it is about consistency (but also flexibility), Steadfastness, and discipline on the part of the teacher. The exchange regarding keeping the lower ranks from "getting the jump" on the higher ups because of the severity of the ensuing punishment was one of the more emotional passages for me personally. I guess similar , though not identical, to allowing bedtimes to be scattered and then punishing children for poor behavior attributable to fatigue. As a parent you can't just explain away and excuse poor behavior but at the same time it is you who has dropped the ball in not "setting them up for success".
That was a seriously powerful sequence. Really hits you with the full burden of what it means to be responsible for a charge. It really effected the way I lead crews when doing projects that require hierarchy.
It gets more interesting when you dig more deeply into it. That book, it turns out, was a favorite of Milton Friedman's, and was instrumental in his deciding to push for an end to the draft (a push in which he succeeded). It had some other interesting sociopolitical effects, as well as pioneering several subgenres of science fiction. I talk about it all in some depth in The Secrets of the Heinlein Juvenile (available at fashionable bookstores everywhere). :-)
It's the greatest gift my mom gave me. She loved to read and she passed that love to me. I'm the only person I know with a physical bookcase (full, lol) And, the only rule I give myself is this: If I read something fun, I have to read something serious after to learn or understand something more thoroughly or brand new. There are no limits on what I will read.
Same here. My father successfully passed to me his love of reading, and I've always been surrounded by books since before I could walk. I currently have the bulk of my library in a very old storage unit waiting for me to build the library building here at the homestead, but somehow I have managed to acquire around a thousand new books from garage sales in the meantime, and they're currently causing a space problem in my storage shed.
I know! But, what a great problem to have, though. Right?
True nuff!
Great post for a Friday. I finished starship troopers and really enjoyed it. What it has to do with today's post is that I spent an arduous evening really evaluating my parenting! It would be easy to dismiss the teachers' discussion of teaching the puppy as backward and unenlightened. But reading those ideas in the way they were presented had a wholly different effect than they would in an academic paper or popular parenting book (and likely wouldn't be there to begin with) It definitely went tap tap tapping on my walls and will probably stay with me more concretely as the kids age and we're presented with new challenges.
Also, I didn't realize the decade it was published, thinking it was a few decades more recent which was also intriguing given some of its predictive commentary.
Also, FWIW, I'm not in Heinlein's camp on corporal punishment per se (I'm reticent about it and tend to think different children respond well to different sorts of conditioning methods), but his basic point of "communicate in a language they can understand" is one that could use a LOT more circulation in an era where parents try to rationalize with children who don't yet have the background or neurological development for it. Doing the rationalization thing can encourage some of that development, sure, but it doesn't communicate, and when you come down to it the purpose of any punishment is to communicate in a way that cannot be ignored.
Yes agreed, because I said so does have a time and a place. A level of authority and absoluteness can also communicate a level of safety and trust I think.
And my main take away was less about corporal punishment per se because yes, agreed, children absolutely respond to different "feedbacks" differently, and more about the idea of setting people up for failure, or expecting behaviors out of them one has not taught, or enforced. This is less about specific "techniques" as it is about consistency (but also flexibility), Steadfastness, and discipline on the part of the teacher. The exchange regarding keeping the lower ranks from "getting the jump" on the higher ups because of the severity of the ensuing punishment was one of the more emotional passages for me personally. I guess similar , though not identical, to allowing bedtimes to be scattered and then punishing children for poor behavior attributable to fatigue. As a parent you can't just explain away and excuse poor behavior but at the same time it is you who has dropped the ball in not "setting them up for success".
That was a seriously powerful sequence. Really hits you with the full burden of what it means to be responsible for a charge. It really effected the way I lead crews when doing projects that require hierarchy.
It gets more interesting when you dig more deeply into it. That book, it turns out, was a favorite of Milton Friedman's, and was instrumental in his deciding to push for an end to the draft (a push in which he succeeded). It had some other interesting sociopolitical effects, as well as pioneering several subgenres of science fiction. I talk about it all in some depth in The Secrets of the Heinlein Juvenile (available at fashionable bookstores everywhere). :-)
Yes your Heinlein book is in line after the accidental superpower!
And
Cool! I hope you enjoy the hell out of it :-)