Grand Avenue by Mike Thompson for August 26, 2016
August 25, 2016
August 27, 2016
Transcript:
Michael, I need you to mow the lawn. You mean, you need to trust a child to operate a sharp, wildly spinning blade without cutting off his foot. You want the children you're raising to be smart... Just not too smart.
The problem is, we have taught our kids that safety is more important than taking risks and earning rewards. My dad taught me how to use a table saw, drive & mow with a gas mower, when I was 7, plus lots of other dangerous work. (No serious injuries, except for a car wreck much later.) I think the lack of work ethic happens because the kids get past puberty (and harder to make them do something they don’t want to do) before they have to do hard physical labor. Some child labor & safety laws make sense, but I think they’re more extreme than is good for character development.