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You can't legislate intelligence. Yesterday I went to my daughter's school's open house. When I entered, I was cornered by an administrator and told I had to
by god_bless_texas 11y ago
You can't legislate intelligence. Yesterday I went to my daughter's school's open house. When I entered, I was cornered by an administrator and told I had to sign some paperwork before I left. It was the computer policy. After I signed it, the admin said my daughter had to sign it too. She's 4.
- oldfatslow 11y agoSimilar thing happened when my son started kindergarten. His "signature" was in red marker that smelled like cherry, took up half the page and kind of looked like an alligator to me.
- kedean 11y agoWhat exactly does that accomplish? It's not like it's a binding contract, it's a child.
- coldtea 11y agoIt makes idiots in offices feel good that their new policies are followed.
- god_bless_texas 11y agoThis is what I was assuming was the case.
- interpol_p 11y agoMaybe they're trying to be cute? Toddlers love imitating their parents and doing "grown up" things.
- vidarh 11y agoThe intent is not to legally bind her, which it obviously wouldn't. Usually the idea of having a child sign too is the idea having a child explicitly agree makes them more likely to be invested in complying. Whether or not there's any evidence that works, I don't know, but it's not quite as stupid as it might seem at first glance.
- tdees40 11y agoUh, she's four.
- interpol_p 11y agoThis isn't a comment on whether the original scenario was ridiculous or not, but you'd be surprised by how incredibly aware very young people are. Even a three year old can easily understand the significance of signing something. Especially if you, as an adult, place importance on the ritual. Asking toddlers to promise things, to explicitly agree to future events, is a big part of preventing tantrums. Three year olds are very capable negotiators.
- Avenger42 11y ago> Especially if you, as an adult, place importance on the ritual. Yes, we adults really place a lot of importance in the ritual of "scroll to the bottom and click 'Agree'". (In case my point is missed in the snark, it's that adults will often sign whatever they're told to sign, especially if worded like "sign this or else you can't [X]", and kids will sign whatever they're told to sign by their parents. If parents were actually placing importance on only signing things that were necessary, there's no way they should let their 4-year-old sign anything that could remotely be considered important.)
- interpol_p 11y agoI agree that asking a four year old to sign something outside the context of a fun game is stupid. But I just wanted to make the point that four year old — or even a three year old — can totally understand the concept of signing something and a parent could even use it to enforce a future event (e.g., sign this bath time contract which means you must have a bath after dinner).
- code_sterling 11y agoNo, it's as stupid as it sounds and your trying to rationalize stupid. She's 4.
- coldtea 11y ago>You can't legislate intelligence. Not but you can severely punish idiocy, so that it doesn't dare act that way again (and I mean the idiocy of the police in the story, or the people having your daughter sign BS)..
- adharmad 11y agoRidicule works too!
- yellowapple 11y agoOh if only.
- dboreham 11y agoI had a similar experience when registering my sons for middle school: asked to sign a computer and network use policy. Being "in the trade", I stopped to read the five-page document. Wife got a little frustrated with me holding up the registration process. When I was done reading I signed, then instructed my kids to never use the school's network except where such use was unavoidable. Turn off WiFi on their phones when on school campus. They didn't need the kids to sign it, fwiw, because the goal was to make me financially liable for any action taken by MPAA/RIAA et al.