Aah yes, kids…
The image here is pretty funny but also makes you wonder about how to deal with children online. My 7 year old daughter has a profile on a Social Network and is connected with every child in her class. How should I talk to here about the opportunities AND dangers of the online world. Should school have a separate course on it? Are the teachers active on social networks? And how about Sex education? One look at BangBros will taint her ideas about sex forever. And unfortunately not in a very positive way either.
It is clear that the Internet and the World Wide Web will play an even more important part in the lives of our children than it will ever do in ours. How should schools and parents prepare their children for that? How do you do it?
Having said that, the image below STILL managed to bring a smile to my face:
Thanks to @shamhardy for the tip.
LOL!!
Nice one.
Well, at school they learn how to swim so they don’t drown, they are taught how to cross the street so they don’t get run over and they are taught how to behave in a group (classroom) and be social.
Why not extend that to online social networking?
I’m not saying that parents have NO role at all (on the contrary) but saying the responsibility lies solely with the parents is a bit too easy too.
They say “It takes a village to raise a child” and I agree: as a society we are all responsible for all our children.
Not only that. It says “Your open question”, so that means she is the one who supposedly took the screencap also…
It’s fake.
This seems to have to do more with raising your children than educating them (in the academical sense). Is that a job for a teacher? I think parents are responsible for teaching their children values, good judgement, etc.
I don’t know about “how” (thankfully I don’t have any children yet), but do feel that it’s a job for a parent. That being said, the main issue is the head start “our” children have. They know more about the internet than 99% of all parents and teachers (the readers of this blog probably being the other 1%), as illustrated by the image in this post.
Boris,
I think your ideal about who should teach your kids these things are skewed.
Just to let you know I am a parent, I have been in public and private schools and as you will read I have very strong opinions of this topic…
1. Teachers are just people with a small salary, not very intelligent and usually not specialists.
My Point: If you let your kids rely on the education they get from the teachers alone well you are dooming them to a retail existence! by that I mean they will never have any ambition or drive, will get by and probably have no option but to look for a job in retail when they leave school. Nothing wrong with that, if thats fine with you, but can you see that in a crisis that we are suffering now, retail is the most volatile.
2. Teachers have alot of kids, they write reports, but generally kids are not tested until they are in later years… by then its too late.
My Point: If you don’t take an active part in their education from their early years, even if its time away from your hobby, they may not flunk or fail, or go bad, but you won’t know until they are at the final years of school, by then they may be upset by your disinterest, smoking joints, or worse by the time they are in the final years of school, so they won’t care about much by then.. Even if they are not that end of the scale, by not taking active part you are letting your kids down.
3. Society as a whole…
My Point: You REALLY want to let SOCIETY as a whole educate your child? Do you want a coke swilling, materialistic sh!t, who whines when the next version of their new toy comes out… Society as a whole is worst person to teach your child. Society doesn’t give a crap about individuals… so your child will probably just follow the herd of sheep and marketing that is directed at them to buy expensive brands like nike at the cost of kids half their age having to make them for cents…
Saying that responsibility lies soley with the parents is NOT too easy, its the Plain Truth.
Some things they have to learn by trial and error.
For Example… In school a kid pushes your kid… I would hope either my kid gets up and pushes back or goes and speaks to a teacher… Either way has a consequence.
BUT do you really want your kid to meet up with a paedophile on a social network and don-t want to think about what happens next, FIRST before you tell your child… Gee these social networks are all cool, but just keep in contact with people you REALLY know…
Trusting Society is the WORST Mistake you can make… Taking Responsibility as a Parent is the ONLY thing you can do… because… you know what… god forbid something happens to your child, … if something did… You can Blame Society… but in the End you WILL feel RESPONSIBLE…
Sorry Boris, had to get that off my chest, and all that is not directed totally at your comment, but generally at the whole Modern Day Parenting Sociel Networking Debate!!!
Glad you didn’t take it personally… It was not intended that way… its just that last line in your comment got my blood flowing… I had just spent the morning in public hospital with my little one… and seeing how nurses and parents were treating their kids… or not treating /reacting with them… it was all too fresh!
Thanks for not dumping the comment off the blog post! I got a little side tracked… ps I had a good laugh at the Pic in the Article…
how she found the forum, if she don´t understand the internet?
Wow, I’m glad that you ended your comment explaining that it is “not directed totally at your comment”. If it were I would have to reply to every assumption about my parenting you just made and that would take a lot of time. Glad to hear our blog is a place where people can get stuff of their chest and feel better! Keep it up…
I, too, got a chuckle from the screen shot. When my son was about 12 I found a picture that he had printed and hid in the basement. He was mortified that I found it. Later that evening, I got on our computer and looked at his online history. He had been searching for porn and his queries made me laugh. They were “poke women” and “Sailor Moon sex.”
Needless to say, we had a long talk about what was, and wasn’t, appropriate use of the computer.
I was also careful not to let him know how I knew what he was up to. Parents who say they don’t want to know how to use a computer are giving away the upper hand.