A California Assemblyman (*cough* Democrat) is proposing to raise the state tax on beer from two cents per can or bottle to thirty cents per can or bottle. That’s an increase of 1,500%. The slope is getting more and more slippery.
SCOTLAND - A large number of preschools have adopted a zero-tolerance policy on the despicable act of toddlers playing with toy guns and pretending to shoot their classmates. In addition, administrators and teachers have discouraged superhero play which, they say, leads to fighting and aggression. However, Penny Holland, a social science experimenter (i.e. she messes with your kids to see what happens), recently concluded, “If children are constantly being told no, we don’t play with guns here’, they absorb the sense that they’re bad. They may seek negative attention and in the end the whole thing becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.
“A ban won’t stop them playing violent games. When the guns and swords are taken away they simply do what children have always done - make weapons out of twigs and Sticklebricks.”
Well, of course, the last thing we want to do is to dent these kids’ fragile self-esteem especially when it results in self-perpetuating cycles. Children should NEVER think they are bad. Even when they’re bad.
I think what’s really interesting about these “findings” is that when you outlaw (toy) guns in the classroom, only the outlaw children will turn their fingers into guns. Besides, if you can’t have fake guns, what are you supposed to do with the Indians once you catch them? Talk sternly to them? They’re already onto the whole make-a-treaty-with-them routine. Maybe we should just learn about the environment from them.
Ellen Donald, a nursery school administrator said, “We divert their attention away from this type of fighting and role play which they see on TV, on programmes like Batman and Superman, and provide them with a lot of curriculum activities which include running, jumping, tumbling. Children just want to run and roll about. They just need to play and vent all their energy.” Well, sure, running and jumping and tumbling, but when they catch up to the bad guy they will want to shoot them or at least beat them up so as to make the world (or at least Scotland) safe for Truth, Justice and the American (or Scottish, in this case) Way.
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