As humans learn and grow, they are subject to a series of
rules and barriers. Often, these
established rules and barriers are put in place in order to protect us. Starting in childhood, we are told what we
can and cannot do. I can recall child safety locks placed on every cabinet in
my house and countless recesses in timeout after playing a little too
aggressively during touch football. When faced with a challenge as children,
whether it is scaling the 8th grader’s jungle gym or how to open the
jar of pickles, we are often coddled and
aided by our teachers or parents.
Too dangerous for kids!
As teenagers, we continue to rely on the aid of others
whenever anything is too challenging or too dangerous, sometimes struggling to
ever step outside of our comfort-zone. We are often never pushed to challenge
ourselves or face our fears, but instead encouraged to fall back onto the
comfort of friends and family. Due to the notion learned throughout childhood that
we should not step outside of our comfort-zone; Adults neglect to try new
activities such as rock climbing, neglect to stand up to that ass of a boss at work and neglect to try the octopus on the menu. Thus, according to John Mill,
we are failing to act in a way which improves society and ourselves.
What we could have if we stepped outside out comfort-zone.
John Mill was a British
philosopher during the 1800s who believed that in order to gain human
improvement, freedom and variety of situations are needed. In order to gain human improvement, people
within society must have the freedom to do what they want. Additionally, people
within society must be subject to diverse experiences. In order to create
diverse experiences in society, Mill finds that people must participate of experiments of living. Experiments of living
can be described as actions that are outside the norm for the actor, bring
improvement to the actor, and allow society to learn from the actions’ results.
Experiments of living can range from something as simple as exercising everyday
to free solo rock climbing.
This video displays a few extreme experiments of living.
I am not arguing that we should be able to pursue any idea
that enters our head, but I do believe, as does Mill, that we should have the
freedom to act in any way which does not harm other people. Children and teenagers should have rules in
place in order to prevent them from hurting one another, but in the same
breathe, there should be rules in place encouraging them to move outside their
comfort-zone, to try new things, and to face their fears. In doing so, as children, teens and consequently as adults,
we will have the ability to improve ourselves and gain human insight, as well
as give society the ability to grow by learning from our actions.
“Do one thing every day that scares you.”- Eleanor Roosevelt
Images used:
Warning: http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/tag/no-kids-allowed/
Comfort Zone: http://jdmoyer.com/tag/comfort-zone/
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEefb2Ofi_M
Progress: http://powerofmoms.com/2012/06/the-power-of-progress/
Mdcor,
ReplyDeleteI very much agree with the ideas you've expressed here in your post. I personally agree that children are "coddled" and that frustrates me to no end. Like you said, how are kids supposed to learn to face their fears or challenge themselves when everything was deemed "too dangerous" growing up. We must acknowledge that we have different perspectives than older, more experienced folks because we are, as they say, "young, dumb, and full of cum." Nevertheless, I genuinely believe that we are way over the top these days.
It's hard to look back nostalgically at a time I never lived in, but just watching movies, listening to music, reading books, or hearing stories from times as recent as one generation ago make me angry at how risk-adverse our society is becoming. But, what can we expect in a politically correct world where people sue one another over the stupidest things and are vindicated by the courts?
I was particularly drawn to your post by your references to the "comfort zone" - as this is something that we talked about in a public speaking class in high school. I absolutely agree with your points about risk-averseness and personally strive to take some risks myself. In my opinion, it seems wasteful to do otherwise, and especially so to regret making (or not making) certain decisions. Ask the girl out, take the new class, talk to the new kid, try the long way home - or as Nike would say, "Just Do It" - and avoid that moment of hesitation when you ask yourself "What if?". I also agree with your point about children being herded into a sense of conformity. In my opinion this is a larger societal and pedagogical issue - much of it can be solved by adapting more liberal-minded and adaptive learning processes, such as Montessori, but I believe we need to change our entire outlook towards upbringings. Instead of raising a child shaped to conform to society, we should be providing a society for our children that is customizable and ready to be molded to fit by the newest generation.
ReplyDeleteMdcor, I thought your post was interesting in the fact that it touched on the issue of children and experiments in living. This isn't really a easy topic to discuss because it goes into parenting methods and I as a college freshman am not too versed in that aspect. The way I see it, parents "coddle" their children because they want to protect them. Mills's theories about experiments in living including the idea of failed experiments in living. I'm going with the assumption that no parent wants their child to become the failed experiment.
ReplyDeleteThis then brings up the issue of when it is appropriate to introduce experiments in living, and what types are appropriate at what levels. Obviously, a small child wouldn't be capable of something like free solo rock climbing. The thing with children is that they are extremely fragile. They are not fully developed mentally or physically, and in many cases are not fit to make safe decisions for themselves--I can attest to this with the numerous amount of times I, or one of my friends, ended up in the school clinic for scrapes, cuts, and the occasional semi-serious injury from playing a little too roughly during recess or thinking that we could jump off of the top of a play structure and land safely. I do agree with you that America, especially in this day, has become extremely cautious to the point that it is difficult to leave the comfort zone that you mentioned. I think that the solution is to introduce the idea of going against social norms gradually. That's essentially what an experiment in living is. Things like learning a new skill or branching out and trying something that is considered "unusual" is a good place to start for children. Then, when they get older perhaps they could make their own decisions about whether or not they want to free solo rock climb.