>From: Spike Jones <spike66@ibm.net>
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.com
>To: extropians@extropy.com
>Subject: teaching appropriate values to the young
>Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2000 12:54:36 -0800
>
>Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
>
> > Could even lead to some degree to the "privitization " of NASA (as the
>real
> > clever folks exit stage left for the stock option arena).
>
>Using a comment by Robert as a departure onto a new thread,
>I wish to ask a question I and my friends have been pondering
>for some time: How do we teach children born in the 90s values
>appropriate to their times?
>
>Background: my regular social group consists of 4 couples:
>6 engineers, 1 computer scientist, 1 CPA. We all went to
>college together. Two couples have one child, I have none,
>4 kids total.
>
>All the adults grew up in times where money was not plentiful.
>Now, money *is* plentiful, at least for those who invested
>aggressively (I didnt {8-[ dammit.). We were all taught to
>work hard, save money in the bank, buy the biggest house
>you can possibly afford because inflation will come along and
>make you a hero, etc. These advises turned out to be...
>well, you decide. Inappropriate for our times.
>
>My grandfather told me the two very most important skills for
>any young man to have are: auto mechanics and self defense.
>OK. One has been marginally useful, mostly as a hobby,
>the other totally useless. Grandpa never saw a computer,
>so I would not expect him to understand the usefulness of
>learning to use one, however:
>
>How can we avoid passing on similarly inappropriate values
>to the next generation?
One value that will never go out of style is: information. You can never be
too rich or too well informed. One of the very few values I feel
comfortable in whole-heartedly instilling in my own kids is to seek to be
well informed.
Like most parents, I do not hesitate to let my kids know what my own
opinions are about such things as "spirituality," values, ethics, morality,
etc. However, I always make clear to them that daddy does not have a lock
on the truth and my own opinions could very well be dead wrong. I try to
instill in my children that one of the obligations they have as humans is to
be accept the responsiblity of seeking out truth for themselves, and not
accepting the word or opinion of anyone else merely because of that person's
presumed authority (whether it be daddy, the preacher or the president).
-Zero
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:03:58 MDT