Posted on 03/22/2015 3:57:54 PM PDT by bgill
Is your child ready for first grade?
Earlier this month, Chicago Now blogger Christine Whitley reprinted a checklist from a 1979 child-rearing series designed to help a parent figure that one out. Ten out of 12 meant readiness.... "Can he travel alone in the neighborhood (four to eight blocks) to store, school, playground, or to a friend's home?" It's amazing what a difference 30 years have made.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
The comments section is a must read.
Things have changed from the days of ‘be home before sunset.’
What’s left unspoken is that Democrat women are the ones who accomplished this codification of infantilization.
Then they divorced their husbands, got addicted to antidepressants, became white wine alcoholics and started screwing teenage boys.
Democrat women, Ready For Hillary.
And I'm sure the blogger took full credit and claimed to be the author.
Yeah, like getting abducted by child molestors or beaten up by neighborhood thugs for no reason.
Comment section is mostly about the poster’s childhood or parenting so I’ll start: My 74 year old brother walked several blocks to kindergarten and when he was in second grade he went to another school even further away. He had to walk to the library and then catch a public bus the rest of the way, without anyone with him or so he claims. I’m almost 8 years younger and a girl so I think by then my parents were more protective. I’m pretty sure however that I walked at least four blocks home from kindergarten. I do remember getting lost. I also however remember wandering off at the age of about 3 and my mother totally freaking out. I was following the guy with the camera and the pony. I have a photo of that day. I guess my mom figured if I really wanted to sit on the pony that much she would pay for it. I was totally a free range kid. And I was the youngest. My mother and grandmother were both home. The one time my older brother was told to keep an eye on me he tied me to the garage door.
Everyone should go to the comments section and read the spot on “we didn’t have the green thing” response.
Wonderful truth hammer.
But thank goodness those awful fifties are behind us, yeah?
today, Mom and Dad may as well walk the little ones to school, because they don’t have jobs and thus have nothing else to do, and they can’t sit around grandma’s basement and play X-box ALL day....
my friend and I roamed for miles in the nearby woods and farm land.
when his mother wanted my friend she would let Jack go. When Jack showed up, where ever we were, it was time to head home. Jack was a black shepherd with a white collar
My mother rang the big black bell that could be heard for miles
we were 12 or so
The list (after clicking through several sites):
1. Will your child be six years, six months or older when he begins first grade and starts receiving reading instruction?
2. Does your child have two to five permanent or second teeth?
3. Can you child tell, in such a way that his speech is understood by a school crossing guard or policeman, where he lives?
4. Can he draw and color and stay within the lines of the design being colored?
5. Can he stand on one foot with eyes closed for five to ten seconds?
6. Can he ride a small two-wheeled bicycle without helper wheels?
7. Can he tell left hand from right?
8. Can he travel alone in the neighborhood (four to eight blocks) to store, school, playground, or to a friend’s home?
9. Can he be away from you all day without being upset?
10. Can he repeat an eight- to ten-word sentence, if you say it once, as “The boy ran all the way home from the store”?
11. Can he count eight to ten pennies correctly?
12. Does your child try to write or copy letters or numbers?
Not trying to justify helicopter parents but I understand the reasoning for some.
The middle class opportunities are not good.
In my day you could be a skilled trades guy or get a degree from a big 10 school and expect to make a decent living.
Now that’s much less likely. So the parents desperately try and get their kids into primo schools so they can become masters of the universe.
If I wasn't home at sunset dad would just stand on the porch and bellow my name.
I went to 1st grade just a few years before this 1979 guide.
I consider myself to be very fortunate, in that I grew up in a true neighborhood (resembled tv shows of the 1950s). My parents knew everybody in the neighborhood...all the adults in the neighborhood acted like adults...and (to my chagrin) if I misbehaved anywhere in the neighborhood, my parents would find out about it.
Sadly, those days seem to be over.
BTW, I walked around 1/2 mile home (had my twin brother to keep me company), without incident. Can’t say the same for the bus ride itself - 1970’s busing in Alabama was a chaotic mess, that even a 6 year old kid could notice.
Oh, to be a teenager today!
lol
Aaaand... a coupla jumps like that and his parents didn't have to worry about him getting his girlfriend pregnant either!
I was too. my back yard was the city limits
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.