The inspiration for this post came from two different sources, and in relation to my previous post about the balance between mental and physical health it addresses some of the issues that one needs to navigate in what is becoming a very cluttered space to look for information that we call the internet. You can read the previous post here:
Just before I go into the main content of this post, I just wanted to let you know about the feature (which is related to this post) that I am trying to raise awareness for because I think it is important to all the potential children and younger audience that might be using steemit or viewing with their partents. The idea is to introduce a nsfc tag (similar to how a nsfw tag might work) and you can read more about it here:
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@plushzilla/adding-a-nsfc-feature-tag
I think you'll see why it is related to my main post because it is also around the concept of knowledge and how to apply it correctly if you want to create a safe environment for your children.
So the first piece trigger came across a conversation with two different parents who both wanted to get their children into gymnastics but for slightly different reasons. One parent thought it was the best way to help with flexibility, strength and agility while still being relatively safe for his child. The other found gymnastics to be something that his child excelled at and helped to focus and channel their competitive edge. In both of those instances I would have actually suggested parkour as the preferred activity but I realized what the defense of their choice would have been. The first parent would have said that it was too dangerous to be doing all those daring jumps and acrobatics, but the true practice of parkour has nothing to do with fancy stunts and everything to do with understanding the mechanics of your body and working out the most efficient movement across a given space/environment. The second parent was using physical activity to help with building discipline, but with competitive sports it is also possible for a child to see winning and losing as success and failure and miss out on the important lessons that lie within. Once again parkour in its essence is about understanding and improving yourself in a non-competitive environment which is why I believe it is more suitable for this purpose. I will come back to why knowledge becomes a double-edged sword shortly.
The second trigger comes from an interesting youtube channel that I learned about recently called drugslab, and you can take a look for yourself here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvRQKXtIGcK1yEnQ4Te8hWQ
I do suggest you actually watch through an entire episode (not the introduction video) before making up your mind, because it is a lot more informative than I gave them credit for, but I am not the child or the parent (and I have never taken illicit substances previously) so I am not going to give an opinion that has no weight or experience behind it (but feel free to make up your own mind).
Now I was rather skeptical at first because of the producers (and hosts) of the channel making the claim that it is educational, since the premise of its content is about young adults taking various types of drugs (as suggested by the audience) and filming their experience to share with the audience. And to certain extent the intrepid young hosts (three very lovely Dutch people I must say) do try their best to do this in a controlled environment (and dosage) while recording vital statistics like heart rate and body temperature, I can't help but think the medium of youtube doesn't lend it self to contributing to the entertainment aspect as much as it does the educational facets of drug metabolism.
Nevertheless, I come back to my point about knowledge being a double-edged sword. On the first point about gymnastics being 'safer' than parkour, I find it interesting that a recreational activity intended to teach you about your own body and how to move efficiently can do more harm than the stress and strain of a competitive sport like gymnastics. That would be like saying teaching your child to swim is more dangerous than just trying to keep them away from all bodies of water. I think the paranoia about children being hurt and childcare centres worried about being sued has created a generation of children that aren't aware of danger simply because they are not exposed to it in any degree, but is this doing them more harm than good?
On the point about using physical activity to focus and channel a competitive spirit, one wonders whether the mental benefits of sports is being misunderstood as well. I have said in my previous post that mental fitness is something that is not independent of physical fitness, and the balance between the two needs to be spread between the level of fitness required to keep a child's mind and body healthy. If you find that your child has a high level of physical fitness, the assumption is that they also have developed a high level of mental fitness through the discipline required for the sport but as you can see from some of the behaviour from professional sports people that this is simply not the case. That would be like saying just because you are highly intelligent that you wouldn't let your body go to waste and not keep up with your physical fitness, since there is a stereotype of the so called 'nerds' and 'geeks' being physically unfit for a reason. It takes time and energy to keep up with physical and mental fitness, and often we see an imbalance for the reason that people prefer to do what comes more easily for them.
So what is a parent to do with all that knowledge? Do you try to share it like the good people on drugslab and make it entertaining and educational? There is a saying that the difference between courage and cowardice lies in how much you are aware of the danger, and that if you knew the risk that you are taking then the sensible thing to do is not to try and be a hero. While I recognize that there is benefit in the information that drugslab share by teaching children about the safe dose for a drug (which I think is not quite as straightforward as providing a figure), and they do track the effects of the drug days after first using it (which is more than most people will), I don't know if the parents and children are discerning enough to be able to use the knowledge to protect themselves rather than doing themselves more harm.
But in this age of the internet and social media, we are going to be exposed to and probed for weakness in our physical and mental armour. So whether you choose to wield the sword of knowledge or shy away for fear of the sharp edge is going to be a tough call to make. And I am not even a parent (yet) so I am curious to know what the educators and parents think about how they tackle what information is provided to children to keep them as safe as possible.