All the time... all the time... :/Myria wrote:To run free over fields and meadows, playing in the woods as a child in your spare time is a romantic and very antediluvian vision. Forget it!
As in I did that (well if you switch meadows and fields to forest and military training grounds...) in my childhood. I'm not so sure that the x-box-generation gets better start to their life working harder in the school and playing x-box after that. I played modern warfare too... so not so much have changed in that regard. I cycled to the marketplace to buy me a gun... oh and before that I did some chores and stuff to get the money for that... kinda like in the real life: you work your ass off to get something you want. And got some exercise while playing.
Not saying that those numbers shouldn't be respected, but... It isn't the primary school (that should leave time for child to be child, imho) that makes best engineers etc. And it has been the primary school system that has shone globally. After that the results seem to be mediocre, but is that the fault of primary education? It sure can be, but I don't feel that way. What is your opinion on that?Myria wrote:Out there we are competing with 1.2 milliard people from India and 1.5 from China. If you want to keep your houses, your jobs, your health, your lifestyle and if you want to keep companies like Nokia alive - our children need to become the best engineers, the best scientists, the best mathematicians and the best businesspeople - they do need a lot more education and skills compared to what we learned and did about 30 years ago in some old public school.
That last paragraph was written while I had excellent song by Queen playing in my head:
"Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you no man ask for
Under pressure - that burns a building
down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets
It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about..."
Do we put too much and too early pressure on the children?