Uncoddleing the American mind.

Circumstances have a way of bringing us back to reality, and even though we might find comfort in a retreat to the safety of our digital devices, that both distract us from real things, and remind us of them. There are real dangers out there. There is no real ease in the real world, even though we may find temporary sequester from it. Stock all your closets with toilet paper, and that still doesn't mean you won't run out of it at some point.

David Brooks in the New York Times write an OpEd, "The Age of Coddling is Over, Learning what hardship has to teach us."  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/opinion/coronavirus-medical-training.html He talks about the rigors of med school and of science education and how doctors are trained by the rigors of their educations, not to run away from danger, but toward it. And if you are paying attention to what's going on around the world, and not just gaming your life away, you no doubt feel some great sense of gratitude for those willing to put their own lives on the line in defense of others.

The world is changing. Normal is no longer a word that will fit. We are attempting to distance from each other and band together in safer, smaller groups. And perhaps the age of coddling our children is over. And perhaps truly caring for them would have been best handled by giving them real work to do, in service to family, community and friends, thus preparing them, as does med school, and the army, to take risks and to rise up.

Is it possible that sequestering children from reality to make their lives safe, also coddles their minds? Current circumstances suggest that we can no longer do that.

The large Froebel blocks on the Clear Spring School campus have been idle for weeks.When they are in use you see children lifting and moving them and arranging them to the limits of their strength.

I've been using the wood shop there to drill a few holes in preparation for student at-home work. These days will come to an end. Children will return to work and play. But where's the testing and tracing that needs to be put in place first? So far, not so good.

Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning lifewise.