Monday, July 26, 2010

"Won't Someone Please Think Of The Children!"


"Michael Warring, president of American Educational Products in Fort Collins, Colo., had his shipment all ready: A school's worth of small bags, each one filled with an igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock. Then the school canceled its order. Says Warring, "They apparently decided rocks could be harmful to children."... The children will study a poster of rocks instead."

Back in MY day they made us climb up the side of a steep river bank over a dangerous river to dig for agates and amber with sharp hammers. Then we put them in rock tumblrs that worked at high decibels to smooth out or little treasures.

Remind me to tell you of the times when actually used our own BLOOD in junior high science class to test blood types. The worst thing that ever happened in that a few kids realized that they were adopted.

http://www.boingboing.net/

10 comments:

DrGoat said...

I agree. The ground under the swing set and monkey bars at my school was dirt, so when you fell off, you got scraped and cut and all the good stuff that comes with learning. And we learned. No lawsuits. What a concept. These kids will be ready for nothing but being good consumers. Just he way they want them.

Copyboy said...

OMG the last part so takes me back. I remember lancing myself 3 times before i drew a single drop of blood. FYI I'm O positive.

Kal said...

Remember those lancets they just let you play with and share?

D.I. Felipe González said...

This kind of posts remind me a lot of Asimov's Foundation cycle. Too sad.

M. D. Jackson said...

How are these kids going to learn if they're protected from everything?

When I was a kid we used to go to construction sites and throw rocks at each other. We had rock wars between two groups of kids. The first one to run home screaming about a bloody gash in their forehead was a wussy-boy.

Of course, none of us could hit shit from three feet away so most of us survived.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

We did that too. Garbage can lids and sticks. Hell, we once found a box of heavy ball bearings and it was like we just won the neighborhood arms race. Hey, that is a post there.

Pat Tillett said...

That's funny! What's next, home DNA testing?

Kal said...

That will never happen Pat since fluids are involved. I was also thinking about all the dangerous chemicals we worked with while using fire. I remember seperating the hydrogen and oxygen from water and then creating a pop flame by inviding a glowing slint to the flask. He used a HUGE flask and it exploded and there was nothing said to parents. It was no big deal just a fun story to tell.

Andrea said...

O, the days. Yes, you manly men, I used to climb a clay bank in my neighbors' yard the size of the Grand Canyon (at the age of 9) after collecting Magnolia "cones" from the Magnolia trees in my yard and pelt her brothers with them when they came out to ride bikes! We always "The Boys Hideout" and "The Girls Clubhouse" in our neighborhood - can't do that anymore either! I remember the old Bunsen burners & blood tests & actually HOLDING A REAL LIVE ROCK in 8th grade science class(even if I did want to pelt the boy standing next to me with it for whatever reason). But HEY - IT WAS REAL (and I knew better than to throw it - them's the key words folks - KNEW BETTER THAN). A truely sad day in the world of education and childhood! Let us bow our heads...

Kal said...

Andrea, you girls were worse than the boys. We at least had lines we wouldn't cross...but hit ONE girl with a rock and suddenly all the girls in the neighborhood morphed into one creature until the offender was punished severely. It was the same in Jr. High. I fear nothing except the Jr High Girl.