Do you remember being a kid?
You want to remember the good times
of running and playing with your friends, hop scotch, tag, hide and seek and
stuff like that. Oh the good memories.
You don’t remember the times when you
were sick or bruised or broken or waiting at the doctors staring at a dirty
fish tank and reading old magazines waiting for a shot.
Being a ‘kid’ means you are not old
enough to make your own decisions. Some big person tells you when to wake up,
what to wear, how to comb your hair, how to tie your shoes, what to eat then
tries to find something for you to do all day.
School was a good baby sitter for
most of the day. Like being in the army (or prison) they had rules and
regulations and every kid had to follow them. Line up in alphabetical or (or by
height or size – whatever they told you) and walk to the lunchroom in an
orderly manner. Boys and girls had separate bathrooms. Boys and girls played
separate games. Boys and girls were kept apart.
Schools also judged kids, giving them
permission to move on to the next grade or be shunned and left behind from all
your friends. Schools also introduced math, history, geography and science,
playing an instrument, art and an array of subjects never taught at home. Each
was tested and a valuation of interest or skills would be calculated to guide
the kid into a future career without their input. Some call it ‘herding’?
While all the evaluations are being
evaluated, the kid is finding out about poison ivy, sunburn, swimming with snakes,
fish hooks, bees, sledding, fireflies and trying to fit in. Being accepted into
teams, clubs, gangs, is an all-important training for social interaction.
Just when a kid is having freedom,
they are called back to reality by homework, bedtime and brushing teeth.
Somewhere along the line of tighter
and shorter clothing, bad haircuts, awkwardness and being goofy, kids grow up.
All that training, discipline, instruction is shed like a snakeskin and the kid
is now declared an adult.
Some of us
don’t leave.
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