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Can we stop drugging children and just give them a little more recess?

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Agreed. The elephant in the room is that school is rather unnatural and modern kindergarten is overly structured and academic. [1,2]

Humans are just highly intelligent animals. Kids acting like animals when they are 5 years old is not unnatural.

[1] https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/...

[2] https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-conten...

jakecopp|7 years ago

I went to a Steiner school for kindergarden and the focus is completely on play and hands on outdoor activities. I have fond memories of messing around with hand drills in the playground!

https://www.steinereducation.edu.au/steiner-education/early-...

bayesian_horse|7 years ago

Been tried. Like a couple hundred million times over, both in studies and by parents trying to figure out what do with an ADHD child.

It's not like parents aren't motivated to change their children's behavior to be more manageable...

black6|7 years ago

When we sit children down to do low-grade, menial clerical tasks for eight hours a day with minimal breaks, what do we expect?

vibrio|7 years ago

When we sit adults down to do low-grade, menial clerical tasks for eight hours a day with minimal breaks, what do we expect?

bayesian_horse|7 years ago

Adults who can perform knowledge work and have sufficient impulse control.

I believe that sitting children down for a couple of years, compulsory, is a strong factor in what we call civilization and the overall decrease in violence. You can think of it a bit like Zen's "just sitting" meditation practice, if you want.

mholmes680|7 years ago

I believe that's the guiding principal behind Creative Curriculum: https://www.creativecurriculum.net/

My kids' daycare has adopted it. It seems perfect for my daughter who seems self-driven, but maybe too open-ended for my son (who we pushed ahead..so far - mid-november bday with 10/31 cutoff).

Or maybe better: https://www.montessori.com/montessori-education/

nixpulvis|7 years ago

I can't say that nobody gets some benefit from the drugs, but having grown up with some friends on them in elementary/middle school I can safely say it's a serious thing to be on, and it's not to be taken lightly.

EDIT: I'm talking about drugs like Ritalin.