I pretty much write whatever strikes my mood but chances are it will have a grown-up kid perspective. I live in Asheville, NC and that alone could be a whole blog in itself. A little bit of creative art, some wilderness adventures,my dog, tales of my childhood, observations at Starbucks...Lot's of variety here. Enjoy.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Is the Itsy Bitsy Spider good for kids?
I washed my hands and the little spider, with nothing to cling to, slipped down the drain. I found myself singing about the Itsy Bitsy Spider ...went up the water spout... while I watched this happen I secretly smiled in delight that the poor spider was meeting with an unfortunate set of circumstances...down came the rain and washed the spider out...Mwahahaha!! However, despite marveling at my own evilness, the song made me wonder what we are teaching our kids. Unrelenting persistence. Yes that's great. Get back up again after you fall down. Fantastic. But are we not also inadvertently teaching children NOT to learn from their own mistakes when telling them the spider goes back up the exact same spout? Every child knows that rain happens regularly and that that spider is highly likely to meet the same demise and consequence in the future...we teach them that with "Rain Rain Go Away, Come Again Another Day". ...out came the sun and dried up all the rain... An old Chinese Proverb tells us if we fall down 7 times to get up 8...It is also said that lessons will be repeated until learned... Is the spider simply facing the spout with sheer determination or is it just a little slow on the uptake? Was the spout placed there by some divine intervention to deliberately give it a challenge to overcome? Maybe once it fully completes the uphill battle of the spout it will be a better spider because of it? Maybe. For gits and shiggles, let's change the last line of the song so that the spider does in fact learn from its own mistakes, takes a different path but still continues its persistence with "goes up the wall instead". Would that thereby be allowing it to take the easy way out or is it teaching children to try something different if the first way didn't work out? Hmm...that's a tough one. Maybe its ok if the new route of the wall comes with its own challenges...Not sure...what I am sure of is that each and every one of you will have that little song stuck in your head for the remainder of the day. Mwahahahaha!!
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