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One valuable trait of most humans is that we are able to have experience and consequences transmitted to us without experiencing it first hand. I understand th

by rtpg 3y ago

One valuable trait of most humans is that we are able to have experience and consequences transmitted to us without experiencing it first hand. I understand that falling from high up is painful, not because I have fallen, but because I have seen other people fall, or have had people tell me. I have never broken a bone in my body, but I still understand that it is a thing that I want to avoid! First-hand experience teaches people things, but it neither guarantees the lesson (people make the same mistake over and over all the time!) nor is necessarily the best way to learn a thing. I think it's good that kids toys (mostly) no longer can cause lasting damage to children.

Aeolun 3y ago
> we are able to have experience and consequences transmitted to us without experiencing it first hand Speak for yourself. I don’t think I really learn anything without trying it out for myself. Still have no broken bones though. It makes me a bit anxious about the day that it’ll finally happen because I have no idea what to expect (and it’ll only get more likely as I get older).
imiric 3y ago
First-hand experience is the best way to learn _anything_. It doesn't guarantee learning, of course, but it sure beats reading about it, or, if you're a kid, getting advice from grown-ups you rebelliously distrust. Small children before they've reached the age of reasoning just can't learn from sage advice anyway. > I think it's good that kids toys (mostly) no longer can cause lasting damage to children. We're not talking about lasting damage here. We're talking about a few scrapes and bruises that will (hopefully) teach them to avoid making sillier mistakes in the future. This is what the article is lamenting kids toys don't provide anymore.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
newaccount74 3y ago
They sell safety latches that are supposed to prevent your kids from pinching their fingers with drawers and cupboard doors. They are completely useless. Yelling "careful!!" a million times does not teach your kids anything, since they don't understand what "careful" means if they never hurt themselves. Pinching their fingers with a drawer teaches them rather quickly. Even the slowest learners realize very quickly how to close drawers after they do it the wrong way once or twice. (They might even learn what "careful!" means...)
- dusted 3y ago
  Excellent example.. My son found out not to put his hands near the edges of drawers and doors recently, luckily it was very mild not even a bruise, but it was a shock to him that having your hand the wrong place could suddenly hurt, and I can see his changed behavior months later.
dusted 3y ago
> One valuable trait of most humans is that we are able to have experience and consequences transmitted to us without experiencing it first hand. Yes, and no. Try as you might, but you can't simply explain to someone how it feels to drive a bicycle, how it feels right before you're falling off, you can teach them theory, and they might be able to use that to reduce risk, but in the end, the sensory experience that comes with being in a body cannot yet be transmitted simply by explanation and demonstration. It must be felt and experienced. You might understand that falling from up high is painful, and is to be avoided, but you know what painful means from having fallen from less dangerous heights, and other similar experiences. You may know that falling from the gap between two buildings will most certainly kill you, but if you've never cleared any gaps, you won't have the slightest idea what kind of gap you can clear. You won't know if you're running the right speed, so you won't know if you should go for it or abort. You can explain that "the typical human can run so and so fast" and theory about inertia, wind resistance and whatnot, but you can't get a SENSE of what you in your own body can do, without doing it. I can't explain to you how it felt the first time I hit a ramp with too much speed on my snowboard, it'd probably feel different for you anyway.. I could tell you "don't do jumps on snowobards, it is dangerous unless you practice it", I can tell you not to do anything, because it's dangerous if you're incompetent. But I can't explain to you how to become competent with your own body at physical activities, only tell you to avoid it, and then hope you'll never need it for any reason (be it leisure or some actually dangerous event). It's generally good that toys don't cause lasting damage to children, the risk, and type of damage delt should be in proportion with the kind of game being played. Nobody should be a complete accident get their fingers chopped off when buttering bread.. On the other hand, getting a reasonable understanding that things made out of metals can have sharp edges, to a degree, is probably pretty damn healthy.. Being in a maximally safe environment all the time makes for very ignorant, uncareful people, and when something goes slightly out of the ordinary, they sustain much more damage than people who's grown up knowing that there are some slightly sharp corners in the world know that paying a little attention goes a long way. Again, a little cut in your finger from a metal toy is a valuable lesson towards being more careful around the circular saw. Now, you've never broken a bone in your body, lots of people haven't. But to build competence in many areas, you need to risk that, and that risk is better placed when you're younger and will heal more easily. This does not mean seeking to break something, only that doing certain things will increase the risk.. I'm nearly 40 now, I'd _NEVER_ begin learning to do jumps on snowboard now, because.. I fall harder than I used to.. But I have jumped since I was 12, I broke the bones back then, and it wasn't bad really.. It'd be bad now.. Now I can have fun being competent enough that the risk of breaking something makes up for the increased damage it would do, and I can have fun. Try learning to jump at 40, sure it's doable, but it's much more dangerous.

by rtpg 3y ago

Aeolun 3y ago

> we are able to have experience and consequences transmitted to us without experiencing it first hand Speak for yourself. I don’t think I really learn anything without trying it out for myself. Still have no broken bones though. It makes me a bit anxious about the day that it’ll finally happen because I have no idea what to expect (and it’ll only get more likely as I get older).

imiric 3y ago

First-hand experience is the best way to learn _anything_. It doesn't guarantee learning, of course, but it sure beats reading about it, or, if you're a kid, getting advice from grown-ups you rebelliously distrust. Small children before they've reached the age of reasoning just can't learn from sage advice anyway. > I think it's good that kids toys (mostly) no longer can cause lasting damage to children. We're not talking about lasting damage here. We're talking about a few scrapes and bruises that will (hopefully) teach them to avoid making sillier mistakes in the future. This is what the article is lamenting kids toys don't provide anymore.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

newaccount74 3y ago

They sell safety latches that are supposed to prevent your kids from pinching their fingers with drawers and cupboard doors. They are completely useless. Yelling "careful!!" a million times does not teach your kids anything, since they don't understand what "careful" means if they never hurt themselves. Pinching their fingers with a drawer teaches them rather quickly. Even the slowest learners realize very quickly how to close drawers after they do it the wrong way once or twice. (They might even learn what "careful!" means...)

dusted 3y ago
Excellent example.. My son found out not to put his hands near the edges of drawers and doors recently, luckily it was very mild not even a bruise, but it was a shock to him that having your hand the wrong place could suddenly hurt, and I can see his changed behavior months later.

dusted 3y ago

> One valuable trait of most humans is that we are able to have experience and consequences transmitted to us without experiencing it first hand. Yes, and no. Try as you might, but you can't simply explain to someone how it feels to drive a bicycle, how it feels right before you're falling off, you can teach them theory, and they might be able to use that to reduce risk, but in the end, the sensory experience that comes with being in a body cannot yet be transmitted simply by explanation and demonstration. It must be felt and experienced. You might understand that falling from up high is painful, and is to be avoided, but you know what painful means from having fallen from less dangerous heights, and other similar experiences. You may know that falling from the gap between two buildings will most certainly kill you, but if you've never cleared any gaps, you won't have the slightest idea what kind of gap you can clear. You won't know if you're running the right speed, so you won't know if you should go for it or abort. You can explain that "the typical human can run so and so fast" and theory about inertia, wind resistance and whatnot, but you can't get a SENSE of what you in your own body can do, without doing it. I can't explain to you how it felt the first time I hit a ramp with too much speed on my snowboard, it'd probably feel different for you anyway.. I could tell you "don't do jumps on snowobards, it is dangerous unless you practice it", I can tell you not to do anything, because it's dangerous if you're incompetent. But I can't explain to you how to become competent with your own body at physical activities, only tell you to avoid it, and then hope you'll never need it for any reason (be it leisure or some actually dangerous event). It's generally good that toys don't cause lasting damage to children, the risk, and type of damage delt should be in proportion with the kind of game being played. Nobody should be a complete accident get their fingers chopped off when buttering bread.. On the other hand, getting a reasonable understanding that things made out of metals can have sharp edges, to a degree, is probably pretty damn healthy.. Being in a maximally safe environment all the time makes for very ignorant, uncareful people, and when something goes slightly out of the ordinary, they sustain much more damage than people who's grown up knowing that there are some slightly sharp corners in the world know that paying a little attention goes a long way. Again, a little cut in your finger from a metal toy is a valuable lesson towards being more careful around the circular saw. Now, you've never broken a bone in your body, lots of people haven't. But to build competence in many areas, you need to risk that, and that risk is better placed when you're younger and will heal more easily. This does not mean seeking to break something, only that doing certain things will increase the risk.. I'm nearly 40 now, I'd _NEVER_ begin learning to do jumps on snowboard now, because.. I fall harder than I used to.. But I have jumped since I was 12, I broke the bones back then, and it wasn't bad really.. It'd be bad now.. Now I can have fun being competent enough that the risk of breaking something makes up for the increased damage it would do, and I can have fun. Try learning to jump at 40, sure it's doable, but it's much more dangerous.