I know this train has long left the station....

But I am so, so fed up of people who use 'silver bullet' when they mean 'magic bullet'!

Silver bullets kill things, werewolves, mostly, right; or just generally Bad Guys when fired by the Lone Ranger.

Magic bullets Do Good - like curing sifilis, thank you Ehrlich and Hato, they are targeted remedies.

Also, however hyperliterate I am myself and have been from a young age, I don't think it's the panacea proposed here: There is a silver bullet for childhood happiness: a love of reading.

Just because she (and I and I daresay many of you who are reading this) found our happy place in reading, doesn't mean it's going to be that for all children.

I am entirely there for emphasising the role of pleasure in reading, for

meeting children where they are. It means allowing children to read books that might be perceived as too old and too young for them; it means relishing your child’s love for comics and heavily illustrated books

and not gatekeeping and niggling about what they are reading.

But I don't think this is For Everyone any more than Going Out and Playing In the Nice Fresh Air.

And on that, I really liked this: Children should have a right to play in the streets, alleys, pavements and car parks of their neighbourhoods. Refers to a letter about children playing in streets, etc, rather than in designated playgrounds and parks:

It assumes that children should be “taken” to designated play spaces, rather than allowing for the possibility that children should be able to access playable space without adults. And, finally, it fails to acknowledge that parks and other green spaces afford only certain kinds of play, and that children demand – and deserve – diverse spaces for diverse forms of play, not just ball games, swings and slides.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

calimac

Reading was certainly my childhood pleasure. My parents had to urge me to put the book down sometimes to go out and play, but I'd rather read.

I did, however, go out, mostly bike riding. I liked to explore the odd corners of the town and venture out in the countryside. Being restricted to a park would have frustrated me.

"Silver bullet" for "magic bullet" is not an error I recall seeing.

kore

"There is a silver bullet for childhood happiness"

O dear.

adrian_turtle

A silver bullet for childhood happiness is overscheduling. Any one of those music lessons and tutoring and sports and projects is shiny and valuable. But.

jesse_the_k

I was lucky to live in places with alleys. THE BEST PLACE TO PLAY! Paved (more or less), so good for bikes and roller-skates and full of interesting garbage and the unfancied-up side of houses.

tigerflower

I find it interesting that there are such pronounced differences between anglophone countries and non-anglophone countries when it comes to whether graphic novels and other bandes desinées are "legitimate." I've been reading a lot of French news/culture media of late and simply don't see the mournful "oh, you've got to allow for That Kind Of Thing, I suppose" approach to pleasure reading of the stuff with illos that you get in the UK and US.

oursin

Gimme that ol'time Protestant Work Effic??? Would like to see whether similar themes might play out in Nordic countries or the Netherlands (and if there is difference between the Calvinist and RC areas...)

The French were also much more about the cultural cred of movies from a very early stage, which maybe has some relevance.

silveradept

I continue to be annoyed at all the think pieces that tell us that children must be encouraged to experience novels and codices and the printed word in all its glory, and then, like fools, place this form of reading in contrast to the Internet and the "social media addiction" and the belief that every child and teenager prefers to have video content shoveled at them in commercial-sized chunks. Give appropriate grief to those technologists and influencers who believe that the way to profitability is to create material that is bait and meant to keep the eyeballs focused, as you would do to other purveyors of advertisements and programs meant to sell toys, positive messages be damned. But stop prioritizing the codex in the same way that the Ancient Greeks lamented that everything was being written, rather than delivered orally and with the proper methods of oration. Good novels are great, and so is excellent fanfiction and informative reporting and all the rest.

At least this one doesn't commit the further error of trying to control what the children should be reading, or insist that only uplifting and intellectually challenging works should be put in front of a child.

The thing I am most concerned about for children playing in and around streets is the possibility that the children might be hurt. That, however, is not a "keep the children away" solution, it's a "design your roadways and vehicles such that if a child darted out in front of you to retrieve a ball, there would not be a danger to the child from the vehicle" solution. Which is something the States are definitely failing at all the time.

Edited Date: 2025-11-01 01:05 am (UTC)

It's Always More Complicated

The wandering thoughts of a wandering hedgehog