Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Mental Respect
I meant to link this post as soon as I first saw it. This is what we are worried about with Sadie, and I expect no less of her siblings. This is the problem we both had in school, especially Deb.
At the same time we dread trying to send her to school to be quashed into blandly sheeplike (appearance of) ordinary intelligence and hatred of education, we also feel overwhelmed at trying to do it ourselves. What’s it going to be like with a kid who would rather invent her own often obscurely symbolic means of communication than use the English she darn well knows? One who is already easily bored. At the same time, one who is highly social compared to us. Or at last not yet jaded into often avoiding rather than straight on encountering other people.
I certainly won’t hold her back. I’m not going to sit well with her in a position for others to do so. This should prove interesting as it unfolds. Why should I treat her as an intelligent human until she’s 5 or 6, encouraging her to learn everything she wants to take in, then turn her over for mental torture?