The kid is raised by religious fundamentalists in a home thirty miles outside of Boise and has always been home schooled with no TV available. So what does the kid know about the modern world?
My stunning but useful experience has been that...
My stunning but useful experience has been that the most protected child,
by the time he or she reaches thirteen, knows just about the same amount
about the surrounding culture as most of the kids the same age in an
urban public school. Really. The Boise kid will know where to find
porn on the Internet, what recreational drugs are about and which ones
might be tempting, a lot about sex and even more about popular songs.
If you hadn’t seen it four or five times, as I have, you might not believe it. On the other hand, if you watch kids closely you’d have found that by six years old most of them are carrying on a secret life with their peers that is virtually inaccessible to adults.
What is the relevance? To me it says that schools, movies, parents and
most formal education are not particularly relevant. Real education is
among peers. I, personally, in observing my kids growing up, paid much
more attention to who their friends were. That was the best clue I had
to understanding their character and development.
Actually, if you haven’t noticed this, my saying it is probably irrelevant. It helps me to be blasé about censorship, sex education in schools, intelligent design propaganda and most programs designed by goody-goodies to influence kids. I know that kids who want to know will find out nearly anything they want to know in the current world of the Internet. This applies to Chinese kids in China too.