1298 : THE PAPER BOY : Part XXII
• We are all Home Schooling now
We are all homeschooling today in some way or another. We no longer think about this as we used to its just part of modern life. We are all in an overload mode clinging to our phones and the dopamine drip that comes with it.
• Imagine trying to live without your phone for a day or a week?
I guess the paper boy model is nevermore and our muscles have atrophied so much we couldn’t even operate a paper route today it would be too hard.
Definitely unsafe in today’s hyper safety focused world. I long for the days where freedom reigned and safety was assumed and common sense was required to be safe not external protections.
~ ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK ~
Definitely Unsafe In Today’s Hyper Safety Focused World
Not a lot of kids in my class read as much as me but there were a few and we were competing in how much we could learn every day. It was a great competition and with the internet we all do this today but with much less structure. I have always loved reading as it was a way to think about things and worlds beyond the page in my imagination.
• This is the learning that all kids need and reading is the way that we learn best in the theater of the mind. It’s much easier to dismiss reading today with television and now youtube where we can download the how to on anything we can think of like the training in the matrix. We even have tools today where we can listen to books and consume massive amounts of information in long form podcasts.
I remember reading all of my aunts Nancy Drew books and then all the Hardy Boys books then what ever else was on the shelf. I remember carrying books around and people would make fun of me for reading outside the classroom. Ironically those same folks never read inside the classroom but that was not the point.
• They called me a geek and school boy and derided me for not being cool. But I never really responded to the provocations and many times kids would come and talk to me about what I was reading that was so important to have my full attention.
Funny thing is I never let that phase me as these same guys were really just trying to be relevant and in those days most of the bullies or bullied were just trying to get attention they were not as cruel as folks make them out to be today. I got pulled into games when it completed the team and read books when I was the odd man out.
• I actually made a lot of friends as a book worm. It was not much different than today but instead of books kids are on their phones. What is missing is the time away from books and phones and internet to be present with friends and family.
We all need to focus more on the things that really matter in our lives. Often we are not present in this information age as we have been swept up into and become part of technology. They say if it’s free then you are the product.
Are You Being Programmed ???
We Went From Television Programming to Internet Programming
Are you being programmed? We went from television programming to internet programming and need to remind each other what’s really important in life. Do we desire to live in reality or virtual reality? One of those has a future choose wisely whom you will serve.
I learned from my parents and grownups as a child that sticks and stones could break my bones but words could never hurt me. When you don’t react to bullies they stop being bullies for the most part. Only a real head case who is meaner than snot would be so selfish as to go from teasing to violence and really act out the hate. Our reaction to bullies is important and in this case our non-reaction.
• In fact it seems today that the kids crying about being victims are more than likely bullying all of us with their victimology wasting our time focusing on the negative. Growing up the best answer sometimes was answering with a question: “So What?”
There are always fights but with so many distractions today the fights are no longer the main attraction like they once were. The kids who thought they were tough would say after school across the street we’ll see who is tougher. We made it an event and we took it off campus when we got in trouble on campus because we were smart or dumb enough to know how to stay out of trouble while we caused trouble. The fights ended quickly and the crowd kept the fights civil. Sometimes teachers would get wind of what we were doing and break it up.
• Talk is cheap and you checked yourself more when there were consequences.
Interestingly some of my good friends were those that I had fights with either in words or sometimes in after school wrestling bouts of campus. Remember the scene in the matrix where neo had a fight first to get to know the person? In those days you realized bullying and toughness were just the way to get views and likes for most kids.
• What I thought was cool about that age was that there was a real culture even amongst kids to be fair and to protect those that could not protect themselves for the most part. If you were being bullied you figured out how to act and you changed or you pushed back or you gathered your friends to put a stop to it when it was unfair.
We seldom went to the teachers because then everyone got in trouble. While we respected our teachers and the boundaries they set we all knew we were individuals and we practiced a level of freedom outside the rules. The boundaries we ran up against kept us moving in the right direction but we pushed the envelope because we loved freedom and we were self-reliant ever testing those boundaries.
• Kids that ran to teachers were tattle tales and weak because they could not stand up for themselves. Some learned to solve problems. Others became tattle tales and still others became teacher’s pets and hall monitors.
~ In Those Days We Considered Tattle Tales The Enemy ~
In those days we considered the tattle tales the enemy. The establishment was the enemy of us all. The weak kids clung to authority. We would distract tattle tales with “fake news” to get them to tell the teacher stories that were not true undermining their credibility for being authoritarian tools.
Most kids in my generation did not trust authority and for good reason as when folks got in trouble we recognized that the whole class got in trouble and rules were added and policies that eroded freedom came into being.
Being a paper boy was a homeschool of sorts
It was a more like trade school for kids. We interacted at real school during the day and we interacted in the real world after school. Some kids would join you all gung ho on day 1 to throw a route with you but would think twice before helping a second time because it was responsibility. That hasn’t changed. The kids in the rural areas learned the trades of the farm. The kids in the city didn’t have the farm trades but they had paper routes and mowed lawns. The kids that took it serious had fun and made some money and learned a trade while making some friends. The kids were part of the community in a deeper way because they were providing a service and delivering value to the neighborhood in many ways.
