Tuesday, August 02, 2016

The Swamp (or, let kids be kids)




 

 

 

Well my dear ones,

 

 

 

Something my wife and I often discuss

is the change in the way kids now grow up,

compared to how we did,

and the change is not for the good.

 

Would you like to see a better world?

Me, too.

And it starts with the way we teach our children.

 

 

Here’s a great article from Miss Hannah Rosin:

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/

 

 

“The Land.”  I love the concept, and

I’d like to see it catch on here in the USA.

Let kids be kids.

Let them play.

Let them use their imagination.

 

When I was a kid,

we had a place like “The Land,”

and fortunately, it was right

behind the house we lived in.

 

If we cut through a patch of woods

beyond our backyard,

my sister and I would come to “the Swamp.”

 

Basically, it was a wide, shallow,

very slow-moving creek that meandered

between small islands of trees.

 

As kids, we thought the Swamp was awesome!

 

In the summer,

my sister and I and other kids

would build bridges so we could cross

from one island to the next;

and in the winter, we would ice skate

on the ice trails between the islands.

 

The Swamp.

 

I don’t think it ever covered more

than perhaps 5 acres at most.

But to a ten-year-old kid,

it was a place of mystery,

a place to be explored.

 

Over the years, we kids spent

many happy hours in the Swamp

with ZERO parental supervision;

our parents never set foot in the Swamp

because it was a place for kids,

a place for kids to use their imaginations,

a place for kids to be kids.

 

I hope you all had some place like that

when you were growing up.

And I really hope that your kids

and grandkids get to have a place

like the Swamp,

an electronics-free environment

where they can use the “props”

God provides in nature

to let their imaginations run free.

 

 

grace, peace, and love to you,

dave

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