http://willbop.breebop.com/2006/06/19/the-stuff-of-my-childhood/ Just a Bee in the Bree Bonnet Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:55:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 http://willbop.breebop.com/2006/06/19/the-stuff-of-my-childhood/#comment-215 Mom Wed, 12 Jul 2006 19:45:39 +0000 http://willbop.breebop.com/2006/06/19/the-stuff-of-my-childhood/#comment-215 The world would be a very small place for a child that is not encouraged to "imagineer" through play. I remember a little boy who could see so many fascinating things from his "inside eye" and play them out to the entertainment of many. That little boy also understood the values of human kindness and tolerance for the ideas of others. The world would be a very small place for a child that is not encouraged to “imagineer” through play. I remember a little boy who could see so many fascinating things from his “inside eye” and play them out to the entertainment of many. That little boy also understood the values of human kindness and tolerance for the ideas of others.

]]> http://willbop.breebop.com/2006/06/19/the-stuff-of-my-childhood/#comment-188 william Sat, 24 Jun 2006 01:49:47 +0000 http://willbop.breebop.com/2006/06/19/the-stuff-of-my-childhood/#comment-188 Um, Ya, Puppies. Um, Ya, Puppies.

]]> http://willbop.breebop.com/2006/06/19/the-stuff-of-my-childhood/#comment-187 bree Sat, 24 Jun 2006 01:41:27 +0000 http://willbop.breebop.com/2006/06/19/the-stuff-of-my-childhood/#comment-187 It's just like puppies! They throw themselves upon each other when they're too weak to do any real damage so that they learn how hard is to hard to bite by the time they're powerful adults. Puppies bite and wrestle with each other, but when one ball of fluff sinks its needle teeth too deeply in another's skin, the aggrieved one yelps and turns away, ignoring the aggressor for a time. The puppy eventually learns the boundaries of acceptable roughhousing, and that playing nicely means its playmates will stick around. It's an important lesson in self-control. It’s just like puppies! They throw themselves upon each other when they’re too weak to do any real damage so that they learn how hard is to hard to bite by the time they’re powerful adults. Puppies bite and wrestle with each other, but when one ball of fluff sinks its needle teeth too deeply in another’s skin, the aggrieved one yelps and turns away, ignoring the aggressor for a time. The puppy eventually learns the boundaries of acceptable roughhousing, and that playing nicely means its playmates will stick around. It’s an important lesson in self-control.

]]> http://willbop.breebop.com/2006/06/19/the-stuff-of-my-childhood/#comment-186 jocelyn Wed, 21 Jun 2006 21:31:07 +0000 http://willbop.breebop.com/2006/06/19/the-stuff-of-my-childhood/#comment-186 <i>So much of this play for little boys is verboten today, often by well meaning caregivers and teachers that can not tell that the outward pantomime of aggression is actually a minute examination on the qualities of mercy and the difference between right and wrong.</i> Well said, young man! While things can (and often do) get out of hand with kids experimenting with such things, it strikes me that without such experimental and assumedly "aggressive" play, kids don't have a chance to figure out the boundaries of acceptibility in the no-pressure situation of backyard swashbuckling. When they get all rough-and-tumble and hear shrieks of despair, it's an easy connection to make between the "let's give my playmate a headlock" thought and the "oh, I guess that hurts my playmate" thought before such an act becomes a prosecutable offense. The difficulty now is that parents/teachers/busybodies are swept up with examining that hazy line between childhood roughhousing and "bullying." For sure, it happens - whether we can do anything about it as the grownups, and whether it warrants an all-out ban on childhood play to prevent such acts is debatable. So much of this play for little boys is verboten today, often by well meaning caregivers and teachers that can not tell that the outward pantomime of aggression is actually a minute examination on the qualities of mercy and the difference between right and wrong.
Well said, young man! While things can (and often do) get out of hand with kids experimenting with such things, it strikes me that without such experimental and assumedly “aggressive” play, kids don’t have a chance to figure out the boundaries of acceptibility in the no-pressure situation of backyard swashbuckling. When they get all rough-and-tumble and hear shrieks of despair, it’s an easy connection to make between the “let’s give my playmate a headlock” thought and the “oh, I guess that hurts my playmate” thought before such an act becomes a prosecutable offense.
The difficulty now is that parents/teachers/busybodies are swept up with examining that hazy line between childhood roughhousing and “bullying.” For sure, it happens - whether we can do anything about it as the grownups, and whether it warrants an all-out ban on childhood play to prevent such acts is debatable.

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