More Monday Musings

[gurdymonkey]

OK, fine, the Internet is a terrifying place with child-hating maniacs at every turn. It is clearly a good thing I never reproduced, because my spawn would be The Curmudgeons Of The Future. 

Facetiousness aside, though, is no one teaching letter writing these days?

I remember assignments in school in which I was expected to write to complete strangers, and at a relatively early grade level too: members of the armed forces, the Vice President (get well card to Hubert Humphrey), astronauts. I got an autograph from Red Skelton and a really nice letter from Michael Crichton who answered a question I had about the disease mechanism of the Andromeda virus. I had foreign pen pals. (Come to think of it, I still do.) I even discussed books with inmates at one point.

How can you tell your favorite artist/musician/author that you enjoy his work? How can you tell your elected representatives your point of view on an important issue? How can you apply for a job? How can you, yes, ask a stranger a question about information she put out on the web?

Concerned about turning your kid loose on the internet? Be a part of the process. Get involved with their correspondence project, by which I mean supervise without doing it for your Wittew Dew Dwop.

Who knows, maybe teaching kids how to use the US Mail and the Internet responsibly might even prevent things like the "I Hate Olivia" club that appeared on Myspace.

Words are powerful things. Writing letters - or emails - or blog entries that other people will see - is a valuable skill. As with anything worth doing, it has its risks, but it has its rewards too.

Comments

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

That's the "supervision" part.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

Yes, but if I "supervise" someone being snotty at him I've still left the opportunity for them to be snotty at him. I prefer to wait until I am certain he will be treated politely before I have him reach out. Once I am certain that he is welcome, I let him do his thing.

[momstable.livejournal.com]

Likewise for mine. Not only am I protecting my boys from some of the ugly snottiness. Equally, I'm protecting the adults who do not wish children to bother them. As you know, my kids have no problem interacting with adults. Some adults do not wish to interact with them. I will not "push" my kids on people who aren't willing to interact with children. It's not fair to either side.

Yes, my children know how to write letters. If they wished to write to "public" individuals, such as celebrities or politicians, that is a completely different experience from writing to someone who has an expertise they wish to learn from. Why set them up for failure? Rejection, they've already experienced (all kids have). But if I want them to learn the skill of contacting someone about learning a skill, the first couple of times, I'm going to test the waters. Otherwise, they will lose interest - fast. I speak from experience. I was pretty young joining the SCA. When I asked for help, I got a ton of rejection. It was years before I returned to the arts that I originally was enthusiastic about. After all, no one thought I was worth helping....

I know better now. But certain lessons, I'm not going to expose my kids to until they are ready for them. Why should they make my mistakes? They'll get to collect plenty of their own.