Raising a kid

[juju]

Okay, here's something that i've been thinking on recently.

Curiosity. Little kids have it. Older kids do don't. Why?

When kids get to high school. They are not interested in anything but screwing around. The lessons are boring and pointless. However, when they were 5, they wouldn't stop asking questions.

In fact, when they were 5, they asked so many damned questions that the parents got annoyed. "Go away and play, because you're bothering me."

This negative reinforcement in response to curiosity happened so many times that kids had the curiosity ripped out of them. They were taught not to learn, but to leave their parents alone, and play -- because that's what kids do, and they're cute.

When they got to high school, they still exhibited this same behavior. But now, the kids are expected to behave very differently. They are expected to love learning and not play so much -- the complete opposite of what they were trained to do.

It's at this point that parents start to wonder why kids put so much energy into games and playing, and so little into school.

Well, perhaps it's because you got bored with their neverending series of questions, and made them go play?



Of course, this is only a theory. It's quite likely to be wrong, given my inexperience with the subject matter. Also, I don't actually remember when i was 5. But I do see this between parents and kids all the time these days.

So, anyway, my idea is -- if you don't do this to your kids, they'll grow up to geniuses!