Should we punish parents then?
If homosexuality is illegal, shouldn't parents who make their kids work all day on Sunday, also go to jail? Makes sense right? The way I see it. Gays have no rights (according to the bible), but kids have no rights either (in direct disobedience to God's word).
Exodus 35:2
"For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death."
Exodus 20:9-10
"Six days you shall labor and do all your work,but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns."
Exodus 23:12
"Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your OX and your DONKEY may rest, and so that the SLAVE born in your household and the FOREIGNER living among you may be refreshed."
Are our children to be treated worse than oxen, donkeys, slaves and migrant workers?
Exodus 31:14
"'Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people."
Exodus 34:15
For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death.
Exodus 34:21
"'There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the LORD.
Leviticus 23:3
"Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.
Steal Play. Steal Food.
If you do not feed a child enough food, that child will steal food. The drive to satiate physical hunger is a strong one. Whenever you turn your back, the child will steal food. You have to watch the child like a hawk to prevent him from stealing food.
If you do not give your child enough play time, your child will steal playtime. A child’s drive to play is a strong one. Whenever you turn your back, your child will steal play. You have to watch your child like a hawk to prevent him from stealing play.
You can pontificate/lecture/moralise all you want about teaching kids that stealing food is wrong, you have NO moral authority to do so unless you have ensured that the child has had enough to EAT. You can pontificate/lecture/moralise all you want about teaching kids a good work ethic, you have NO moral authority to do so unless you have ensured that the child has had enough to play.
When a body is starving for food, morals fly out the window. When a child is starving for play, morals also fly out the window. If someone cornered me and my daughter in a dark alley and were about to rape my daughter, you can tell me all you like about the immorality of killing another… then and there, I will do my darndest to murder that fellow who is about to rape my child. I will go to hell happily. I might regret in hell for the rest of eternity, but in that moment, I would happily go.
The need for safety and food are basic needs. Unfortunately, few people understand that in a child, the need to play is a basic need too. If your child has insufficient play, he is stealing playtime for the survival of his sanity in the same way other children in 3rd world countries steal food to stay alive.
Many Singaporean parents lament that their children rush through their work and thus have to spend EVEN MORE time on corrections. It appears that these children don't understand the logic that if they do proper work, then they will suffer less work.
This is like a starving child who steals from dustbins. The drive is too great. He knows that he may fall ill with diarrhea but at that moment of desperate need to eat, he will take the chance anyway to eat what someone else has thrown out. The child starving for playtime, knows that he will end up having to do more work (and he might get scolded) but at that moment of desperate need to play, his drive to steal playtime is too great.
Quantity of Work But No Quality
Our Singaporean children are made to do a lot of work. No one emphasises on quality of work. We are grooming an entire generation of sloppy workers who complete work because that is what Teachers want. It is easy to measure that. How many assignments have the Teachers completed with the classes? How many compos has the class done? It is harder to ensure quality. It is easier to ensure that children pass up work.
Children who lack play will steal time by cutting corners on each piece of work. It appears that in Finland, teachers supervise and ensure that work is properly done in class.
Each new student to Dr Pet's Enrichment needs to be broken of the habit of merely completing work for passing up. They always give completed junk until I slow them down and make it clear to their parents that if their children pass up junk, I will simply teach their children less. As long as you produce sloppy and poor quality work, I will stop teaching you new things.
This forces everyone to be more efficient. Children need to do less work to learn the same amount (or more). Those who shape up learn very fast indeed. Those who never shape up... they learn very little from me. Intelligence has nothing to do with it. Some very smart kids learn nothing at all for months because they produce a never ending river of junk work.
Yet, this is hard... so hard for the parents to grasp. I often get parents to agree to a play day.
Then, they overplan, over schedule and overload. Then, when their children fail to complete the planned work, the parent tells them that they have to complete work on Sunday because they were inefficient when in actual fact, there was too much to reasonably compete in that time frame. We are back to Square One. Not enough play... kids steal play time by dilly-dallying... rushing... completing work and learning nothing.
What is the use of planning play day if you over schedule work during the rest of the week to ensure that work WILL flow over into the Sabbath?
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