I never enjoyed school, but I enjoy, and have always enjoyed, learning. I would undoubtedly have done better if I had been simply taught to read and given a large pile of books, rather than being sent to school — even the extremely good school I went to.
Month: May 2008
Freedom for teenagers
In an interview with Psychology Today, Robert Epstein discusses his view that adolescents are harmed by being restricted and infantilised. This strengthens some of my views about schools and over-protective parenting, which I mentioned in my post on the lies we tell children.
Lies we tell children
After having a go at Paul Graham yesterday for writing outside is area of (considerable) expertise, I am eating my words a little by responding to just such an essay by him. It is true that many people do lie to children. This is what I think we should do.
Glib beats insightful
Paul Graham’s essay, Hackers and Painters, is very popular with some programmers. I just found a hilarious refutation of it, called Dabblers and Blowhards.
The interesting thing for me is that Paul Graham’s audience are just as enthusiastic (if not more so) when he writes rubbish about things he knows nothing about, as when he writes insightfully about things he is an expert on. Continue reading
I have a No TV too
Like Oliver Steele and his family, we have a No TV. I have had one so long that I find it hard to imagine life without it, so I find it harder to assess the benefits than he does. Continue reading
Sex and normality
The easy assumption that both The Guardian and Relate make when faced with men who have lost interest in sex have a medical or psychological problem seems to be to be forcing people into a mould of “normality” that is just as bad as Victorian behaviour that we would now find appalling. Continue reading