6 ms·

I do encourage imagination, mostly by giving the example. But this means building weird things with Lego, it doesn't mean pushing babies on a stage with sunglas

by gbog 11y ago

I do encourage imagination, mostly by giving the example. But this means building weird things with Lego, it doesn't mean pushing babies on a stage with sunglasses and fake ovations by the parents. In our difficult times living a happy life most often means living far away from the media and the society of spectacle. Nothing bothers me more than the exhibitions of those little prodigy on t.v., it is rewarding for the parents only and steals away childhood from the kids.

eropple 11y ago
I know people who have their kids in this program. It has nothing to do with prodigy culture or even really about the actual performative aspects in front of other people--it's about encouraging a love of music and feeling good about making something. That you're getting salty about it is, to be honest, kinda really weird.
- gbog 11y ago
  I know it is not a very common way to think about parents responsibilities nowadays, but it was more so in the past. And I think it was reasonable to ask children to first pursue normal "un-sexy" education before getting more "creative", because in the end the kid will have to get a job, and choosing paths where jobs are not too competitive and pay the rent makes sense. A good friend of mine has his preteen daughter embarqued into writing a book, and this is ridiculous. Kids do not have to be creative, nobody has to be creative. Being creative is a gift (or a curse) that only a few have, and when it is strong enough to be a vocation, it will find its way, even against a classic (boring) education. Also, I hate the star system where a few crasy people are given as examples to the populace, while in fact they have most often a miserable life.
  - hluska 11y ago
    Okay but once again, do you understand that this is an extra-curricular program and not a primary school??? That means that it is recreation outside of school hours. It is recreation outside of school hours where kids are encouraged to be creative, to take risks, to perform in front of people and to tell stories. Do you force your children to spend their recreation time working on things that will directly result in a job? I will be blunt. The way that you are talking has me feeling serious concern about your children. Being creative is not 'a gift that only a few have' - every child has an imagination and I have never met a person who cannot come up with a new idea.
    - gbog 11y ago
      In developped western countries, we live in a world where being original and creative is supposed to be the norm. It is not the same in other parts of the planet, and it was not always like that in the West. Allow me to question this new party line. There are many other values that can be prefered in a human being, like being reliable, good to others, respectful, etc. I also think that being ambitious is not always the best way to get an happy life. I happen to live in China, and there encouraging some creativity in children is quite required, because the education system is very strict and allow only few expression of the self, if any. But in the West, we went too far, and kids and their parents feel easily frustrated if the offspring is no Mozart, that's why I would not encourage more in this context, and certainly would not push my kids (who are doing well, thanks) to Rock Star Schools of any kind (I certainly do encourage drawing the things they want the way they want, but I usually do not post their drawings to my social medias in the hope of showing who genious they are).
  - eropple 11y ago
    There are many things I could say in response to that, but I am constrained by the standards of HN decorum to not say most of them. I will, though, echo hluska in that I don't think you understand what Rock Band Land is. I will also note that the idea that "only a few have" creativity is kind of hilarious, but the humor is dampened by hearing a parent (or anyone, but especially one charged with the raising of children) say such a thing. Almost every child I've ever met was a wellspring of creativity waiting to be tapped, though I've certainly encountered cases where nobody around them knew how to encourage the child to express it. And I certainly know many adults who had any spark of creative drive beaten out of them. I'll leave it to you and your sterling grasp of society to figure out the whys and hows of that.
kstenerud 11y ago
- Rock Band Land does offer private lessons, but only to rockers of a certain age or maturity level, and only if the rockers themselves display a persistent interest in learning to play the instrument. “We only offer lessons once the kid has been asking for an instrument all the time,” Gorman says. “If we sense that the request for lessons is coming from the parents and not the rockers, we almost always say no."

by gbog 11y ago

eropple 11y ago

I know people who have their kids in this program. It has nothing to do with prodigy culture or even really about the actual performative aspects in front of other people--it's about encouraging a love of music and feeling good about making something. That you're getting salty about it is, to be honest, kinda really weird.

gbog 11y ago
I know it is not a very common way to think about parents responsibilities nowadays, but it was more so in the past. And I think it was reasonable to ask children to first pursue normal "un-sexy" education before getting more "creative", because in the end the kid will have to get a job, and choosing paths where jobs are not too competitive and pay the rent makes sense. A good friend of mine has his preteen daughter embarqued into writing a book, and this is ridiculous. Kids do not have to be creative, nobody has to be creative. Being creative is a gift (or a curse) that only a few have, and when it is strong enough to be a vocation, it will find its way, even against a classic (boring) education. Also, I hate the star system where a few crasy people are given as examples to the populace, while in fact they have most often a miserable life.
- hluska 11y ago
  Okay but once again, do you understand that this is an extra-curricular program and not a primary school??? That means that it is recreation outside of school hours. It is recreation outside of school hours where kids are encouraged to be creative, to take risks, to perform in front of people and to tell stories. Do you force your children to spend their recreation time working on things that will directly result in a job? I will be blunt. The way that you are talking has me feeling serious concern about your children. Being creative is not 'a gift that only a few have' - every child has an imagination and I have never met a person who cannot come up with a new idea.
  - gbog 11y ago
    In developped western countries, we live in a world where being original and creative is supposed to be the norm. It is not the same in other parts of the planet, and it was not always like that in the West. Allow me to question this new party line. There are many other values that can be prefered in a human being, like being reliable, good to others, respectful, etc. I also think that being ambitious is not always the best way to get an happy life. I happen to live in China, and there encouraging some creativity in children is quite required, because the education system is very strict and allow only few expression of the self, if any. But in the West, we went too far, and kids and their parents feel easily frustrated if the offspring is no Mozart, that's why I would not encourage more in this context, and certainly would not push my kids (who are doing well, thanks) to Rock Star Schools of any kind (I certainly do encourage drawing the things they want the way they want, but I usually do not post their drawings to my social medias in the hope of showing who genious they are).
- eropple 11y ago
  There are many things I could say in response to that, but I am constrained by the standards of HN decorum to not say most of them. I will, though, echo hluska in that I don't think you understand what Rock Band Land is. I will also note that the idea that "only a few have" creativity is kind of hilarious, but the humor is dampened by hearing a parent (or anyone, but especially one charged with the raising of children) say such a thing. Almost every child I've ever met was a wellspring of creativity waiting to be tapped, though I've certainly encountered cases where nobody around them knew how to encourage the child to express it. And I certainly know many adults who had any spark of creative drive beaten out of them. I'll leave it to you and your sterling grasp of society to figure out the whys and hows of that.

kstenerud 11y ago

- Rock Band Land does offer private lessons, but only to rockers of a certain age or maturity level, and only if the rockers themselves display a persistent interest in learning to play the instrument. “We only offer lessons once the kid has been asking for an instrument all the time,” Gorman says. “If we sense that the request for lessons is coming from the parents and not the rockers, we almost always say no."