Stuff, stuff, stuff

I attended a class this week on “Closing the Headgates” (see headgates.org for an article and a free ebook). This relates specifically to Thomas Jefferson Education homeschooling model. We talked about how we have so many distractions and toys that do not educate our children. All of these need to be removed so our kids can learn. It isn’t enough to simply adopt a model of education and hope our kids follow along and learn something. Is it enough to restrict kids from TV and video games during certain hours of the day? According to this, it isn’t. The electronics need to be removed altogether. Card and board games, puzzles, legos, and any toy that works harder than the kids should not be available to children. I’m not sure I can go that far. I’m not sure whether my kids can or not. I do know as I look around at the things in my house, I see things that we don’t need and that waste our time. They distract us from doing more important things. Interestingly, today one of the early morning ‘news’ shows had a spot about “The Story of Stuff.” I think we will be going through our things, seeing what we can give away, sell or recycle.