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This article makes some fantastic points. I find it sad that we force ourselves to have outwardly facing purpose to almost everything we do. Even if purposeless

This article makes some fantastic points. I find it sad that we force ourselves to have outwardly facing purpose to almost everything we do. Even if purposeless walking has the internal reason of more thought and creativity, we can't do that because there seems to be an over arching need to have an outward requirement to all activity (complete a project, get more exercise, fulfil some need, etc). This was driven home forceful to me in elementary school, quite a lot of years ago but it stuck with me. A friend of mine, who is now a very successful medical doctor and still quite close to me to this day, would walk around the yard with me at any recess. All recess, every day. Sometimes we would say nothing, sometimes we would have long discussions. My principal pulled us in after a number of months and said "your aimless walking is unproductive and will lead to problems, play a sport or find a game and stop it." We didn't listen, and so far we have been very productive in life, and haven't caused too many problems at all.

arjie 13y ago
Is this common in whatever country you're in? If this happened where I went to school, there'd be words at the PTA meeting. Your principal is some kind of control freak. It doesn't sound normal at all.
- Jtsummers 13y ago
  I agree with you. However, it may have been out of concern that they were being anti-social. There are better ways to address that concern than such a strongly and negatively worded reprimand. Subtlety may not have been that principal's strong suit.
- tonyedgecombe 13y ago
  It sounds rather mild compared to what went on in my school.
- trcollinson 12y ago
  Good question! I grew up in an upper middle class area of California: Thousand Oaks. I only went to school in public schools. From about 4th grade on there are great concern about students and conformity. Schools, principals, and even teachers were graded on how well students did in standardized testing, how well the students did in sports, and how many "state level" awards the students received. So, basically, if our goals were not in line with that, we were reprimanded by being told we would not "make it in this society". I remember very clearly being told by a teacher that I was destined to drive a street sweeper. This, of course, made me rebel more. That being said, I can say many of the people in my peer group did conform to these standards and did become very successful. I can point at handfuls of my friends and acquaintances who went to school at MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and many other highly rated schools on full ride scholarships. A number of them have successful careers in medicine, law, politics and even professional sports. So, I guess the proof is in the pudding, it does work. No one ever spoke up at a PTA meeting because parents wanted their kids to succeed, and the thought process goes that if they followed the program, they would succeed. Of course, we won't talk about the suicide rate at my high school...

arjie 13y ago

Is this common in whatever country you're in? If this happened where I went to school, there'd be words at the PTA meeting. Your principal is some kind of control freak. It doesn't sound normal at all.

Jtsummers 13y ago
I agree with you. However, it may have been out of concern that they were being anti-social. There are better ways to address that concern than such a strongly and negatively worded reprimand. Subtlety may not have been that principal's strong suit.
tonyedgecombe 13y ago
It sounds rather mild compared to what went on in my school.
trcollinson 12y ago
Good question! I grew up in an upper middle class area of California: Thousand Oaks. I only went to school in public schools. From about 4th grade on there are great concern about students and conformity. Schools, principals, and even teachers were graded on how well students did in standardized testing, how well the students did in sports, and how many "state level" awards the students received. So, basically, if our goals were not in line with that, we were reprimanded by being told we would not "make it in this society". I remember very clearly being told by a teacher that I was destined to drive a street sweeper. This, of course, made me rebel more. That being said, I can say many of the people in my peer group did conform to these standards and did become very successful. I can point at handfuls of my friends and acquaintances who went to school at MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and many other highly rated schools on full ride scholarships. A number of them have successful careers in medicine, law, politics and even professional sports. So, I guess the proof is in the pudding, it does work. No one ever spoke up at a PTA meeting because parents wanted their kids to succeed, and the thought process goes that if they followed the program, they would succeed. Of course, we won't talk about the suicide rate at my high school...