From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 94 15:53:02 PDT
To: mpd@netcom.com (Mike Duvos)
Subject: Re: Children and the Net
In-Reply-To: <199407312151.OAA26107@netcom14.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <199407312253.PAA23639@netcom9.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Mile Duvos writes:

> 
> Why am I getting the feeling that there are no limits at all here?
> 

Not "no limits," _different limits_.

And since we all have different limits for what we want our children
to see, we want to make the choices ourselves.

(Ironically, James Donald's point about having his son see a live
birth is fairly _tame_ in some circles. Here in Santa Cruz, classes of
4th and 5th graders are routinely visited by midwives (or midpersons,
I guess) who show them all sorts of things. It's politically correct
to show the kids these sorts of things.)

(Visiting one friend, his daughter pointed out a large metal bowl
containing the afterbirth (of a recent birth). I was not
impressed. I'll leave it to you to guess what they were doing with it
at home. Should we _raid_ this house? Or should we _mandate_ this
behavior? Should pagans and lesbian witches visit publically-mandated
classrooms so as to de-program children of their patriarchal,
Xtian-centered, homophobic tendencies?)

[An answer to this rhetorical question: There's no more reason to
centralize and assign schools than there is to centralize and assign
food stores. Elminate public funding for education--or go to a voucher
system if you must--and let the various schools and their diverse
approaches compete for the dollars of the parents. Simple.]

This diversity is why it's so important that we not let governments,
or even local "communities" dictate what we can see, what we can let
our children see, or tell us what we _make_ our children see.

A pretty basic idea, I'd say.


--Tim May

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