Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: Pure Neutronium on 13/07/2009 05:06:16
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Ever see a current child's chemistry set? It's a joke. Baking soda and vinegar. Go back 30 years, see the difference. Curiosity replaced by abject fear, no wonder U.S. science schools are begging for students and the U.S. is falling so far behind...frantically wiping hands with alcogel sanitizer...
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What's wrong with baking soda and vinegar? I play around with them [:)]
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When parents stop suing schools when accidents occur, the kids will be given more interesting things to do.
The kids are as daring as ever; I see the results of Skateboard and Free-running injuries on a regular basis. Lucky for them that no one can be identified and blamed for negligence but the kids themselves, so they can take any risks they like. I do wonder about the position for Sainsbury's regarding kids breaking legs in their underground car park. It's very popular with Kamikaze skateboarders.
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"I do wonder about the position for Sainsbury's regarding kids breaking legs in their underground car park. "
That's why they put up "No Skateboarding" notices.
This problem will be resolved shortly after lawyers stop encouraging people sueing whenever something goes wrong.
How badly does society need adverts saying "Where there’s blame there’s a claim in the UK"?
(That's copied directly from an add btw)
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Health & safety have been taken far too far.
A few bumps and scrapes are good for learning.
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I see no "no skateboarding" notices in my local Sains. It's too dimly lit.
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Health & safety have been taken far too far.
A few bumps and scrapes are good for learning.
And immune systems can't be built by shut-ins either. Parents today are interesting. So many the products of the "do anything" hippy generation, now they are paranoid new age kooks.
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now they are paranoid new age kooks.
Nicely put [;D]
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Health & safety have been taken far too far.
A few bumps and scrapes are good for learning.
And immune systems can't be built by shut-ins either. Parents today are interesting. So many the products of the "do anything" hippy generation, now they are paranoid new age kooks.
Quite so. Does it never occur to them, that they are denying their children all that they enjoyed?
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It is interesting to note how few few people admit to being risk averse. You hear far more overt complaints about it than favourable comments. However, people all seem to think that life is 'more dangerous' these days, as if there were more perverts and rapists around than when I was a child. Who's fault is that?
I suppose they are right about physical dangers being greater now because the poor kids never get the chance to learn how to climb a tree and have not learned the skills related to that sort of activity.
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Haha. I think that is the case with many countries, not just USA. I have a few friends back in India who always moan about how the standards of the current education have lowered considerably than what they used to have. Personally I feel this is in some way related to the rise of SMS, Word wide web and globalization possibly??
Take a look at Oxford English dictionaries for example. Compare a 2009 edition with a say, 1992 edition. BIG difference! :)
BTW,
What's wrong with baking soda and vinegar? I play around with them [:)]
I got to acknolwedge that vinegar makes me go weak-kneed. ;)
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My gran used to say commonsense is something you learn by yourself, or learn the hard way after getting it explained by life and pain.
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Being a parent of young teens myself means that I can see the problems first hand. The biggest change has been that of traffic. I am more concerned with my kids getting hit by a car than attacked by a pedo. It is very rare for the latter to happen but young teens are often involved in road traffic accidents. I am one of the liberal parents who allow my children to cycle into town and to shoot each other with beebee pellets. They do learn by their mistakes but things are tough out there. Last time my son left his bike in town some wag put superglue in his bike lock so he couldn't undo it. Luckily it had happened to another older boy and they both went to the police station together. The police had some solvent to remove it. They had had 10 incidents of it in two days. The reasons why parents don't expose their children to as much risk is more complex than it appears on the surface. My friends son was beaten to a pulp by a gang of boys outside a skate park recently. My Kids have had self defence classes as life in town is rough these days.
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When I was young in the fifties there was a lot of violence in certain areas of Plymouth. The violence was mostly between adults, I think but most kids would steer clear of certain 'dodgy areas'.
I take your point about those dangers to young people, of late, but that is a separate issue to the perceived dangers in kids climbing frames, chemistry sets and the like.
This is turning out as a general social comment thread and it could run and run. But I think much of the problem lies in the pressures to earn enough to consume enough to 'be happy'. Family life has suffered and has produced a lot of very scarred young people.