Subject: Re: Childwrite Project Date: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 20:25:52 -0800 From: John McPherson To: win@thebestweb.com CC: tice@writeme.com, e7750010@tsai.es, Frank@gerryts.demon.co.uk, GeoNelson@aol.com, jheflin@mail.portup.com, mcpherso, kuene@cts.com, anakin@dur.mindspring.com, mcole@napanet.net, tazz4@ix.netcom.com, mjoyner@botree.com, RickAshby@aol.com, straveca@erols.com, Swcgluck@aol.com Win, et al., I forwarded a few excerpts from this Childwrite Project thread to my general-semantics email forum, and am waiting for responses. Win, you may have received some privately (?). There have been two 'public' responses so far from a couple of fellows who seem to have an interest in g.s. (but I'm not sure how extensive their interest is). Max, for one, seems to enjoy writing stories. Forwarded posts attached below. BTW, another thought occured to me: In what ways might this project relate to the effort to establish an online Renaissance University? Ta da! "Renaissance Elementary Online", and also why not "Renaissance High School Online", and possibly "Renaissance PreSchool Online" ? But perhaps you've already anticipated these somewhere in your idea-laden works ... Also, here's my USnail address for the group: John McPherson, POB 81263, San Diego, CA 92138-1263, USA =================================================================== >From: christopher_l._turner@hud.gov >Subject: Re: Call for g.s. stories for kids IMO, three things that kids should be taught that I was not (as a 'child'): 1. How to make goals and plan for the future: This hallmark capability of human 'intelligence' is not sufficiently cultivated in kids by our educational system, I don't believe. It should be emphasized to them that the whole point of all this other 'junk' (the 3 r's, etc.) that we are trying to shove down their throats is to provide them with powerful _tools_ to better enable them to engage in this activity. 2. Teach kid the fundamentals of money and personal finance: In our 'capitalist' culture, perhaps even more 'fundamental' than the 3 r's, etc. Money is primarily a tool for creating more money, an essential in their plans for their future, not for running out and spending on 'toys' at the first opportunity. 3. Somehow -- I won't suggest how here -- kids out to be taught about human sexuality and the responsibilities, child- rearing/ etc., that go with it. It is not beneficial to our children's self-esteem to be taught that 'sex' is 'shameful', 'sinful', 'dirty', 'unmentionable', etc., and that they should be 'ashamed' of their own. They need to understand it realistically so that they can manage it responsibly. That's my two cents, for now :) Chris ===================================================================== [JM comments: I think I can abstract the above as "let's teach kids how to live responsibly and happily in all aspects of their lives". Sounds good to me.] ===================================================================== >From: "Maximilian J. Sandor" At 02:05 PM 4/1/98 -0500, christopher_l._turner@hud.gov wrote: ... >IMO, three things that kids should be taught that I was not (as a >'child'): ... this is my wish, too, and I agree very much with all of Chris' suggestions. It may make sense to limit contributions from the 'gs' side, tho, to basic semantical issues like the 'word is not the thing', or something like what I wrote just today for 'The Little Purple Notebook On How to Escape From This Universe' about 'Negations, Opposites, and Complements' (http://transmillennium.net/pnohteftu/ch28.html ) Outlining these basics is already a sizeable task. Max Maximilian Joachim Sandor, Ph.D. -------------------------------- TransMillennium, Inc. max@transmillennium.net msandor@jccc.medsch.ucla.edu http://www.transmillennium.net/max/ =================================================================== [JM: When I tried to access Max's chapter 28, I got an error. Try "http://www.transmillennium.net/pnohteftu/contents.html"]