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Re:Want Passionate Kids? Leave 'em Alone by dkimball on Wednesday February 10, 2010 @04:44PM (#1116111)
What aspect of the 'tribal' spirit, as I noted above and as discussed on historyexplained.com, do you object to? I'm sufficiently fond of freedom, and sufficiently disgusted by cringing, fawning, and gossip magazines, that I find such a social structure admirable, although, on the other hand, I'm also fond of not dying over a point of honor, so there's that too. (And note, part of my premise above is that "tribal" doesn't have to mean "primitive.")

Also, please explain why you think it's important for parents to push children when they run into difficulties. I agree that there is a certain amount of basic knowledge, which everyone should acquire whether they want to or not (I've even found benefit from statistics classes). But we're talking about passions -- that is, recreations, not basic knowledge. I agree that encouraging someone to get through difficult spots -- to reassure them if they fear failure, to provide superior knowledge and skills on an as-needed basis -- is a good thing, but the whole point of a passion is that it's something that the person in question _wants_ to do.

Re:Want Passionate Kids? Leave 'em Alone by pbhjpbhj on Thursday February 11, 2010 @04:25PM (#1118808)
>Also, please explain why you think it's important for parents to push children when they run into difficulties.

So the child can learn that the limits of their ability are beyond the limits of their self-perceived ability.

We're talking about passionately applying oneself to an activity. This does not limit the locus to recreation IMO.

Re:Want Passionate Kids? Leave 'em Alone by dkimball on Thursday February 11, 2010 @06:13PM (#1119061)
That's a good point, but I think that that lesson would be better learned in the core-knowledge curricula (which the child's going through whether he/she likes it or not) than by wrecking his/her enjoyment of computer programming or violins or model-building or first-person shooters or whatnot.