Kitty court and the judge
I have been reading, and this quote is from a girl's book from England. I don't recall where I located the book. I am sure I grabbed it from a pile and this sounded good.
"Shakespeare helps quite a lot. There is a good deal of sense in Shakespeare; he's fundamentally logical and sound. Take Shylock for instance. Shylock wanted justice, he wouldn't accept mediation; he wouldn't accept an iota less than what he considered his due. He wanted justice. If you refuse to share and continue to demand justice you can't complain when justice is given you."
As a parent of a kid on the spectrum so many times I hear people wanting justice from everywhere. Schools are big when the kids are of the age. I believe that most of the work with our kids begins at home. We demand that the schools do certain things: and yet at home the consistency isn't the same.
What brought this up was something I read yesterday about a blog by Penelope Trunk. You have heard me mention her before. I ususally find her pretty amusing. Yesterday wasn't so funny. She was proponing the use of the dreaded video games. As a resource (cooking and other excercise venues), video games are probably OK. The idea that she had that they were a way of learning to work together and create teamwork was really a stretch. I realize she is writing from her point of view, but she doesn't realize that as her kids get bigger the video games get more addicting and she and her farmer are going to be in a fine kettle of fish when the boys decide to beat the boogers out of them after playing for an afternoon. I think when her boys are bigger than she is; she may want to re-think this video game option.
I don't like video games or the systems. I have a numbe rof reasons why, and although I don't go into a ton of detail about it I will say that the over stimulization of the games is really a bad thing (understatement). Some kids on the spectrum do get physically violent after a stint of playing (they make the news). Here in our house we allow for 15 minute increments timed with an egg timer. After what we call an "episode" (refusal to do homework or cooperate) several weeks ago our son lost the video gaming privilege until January. We will re-evaluate at that time; and we are viewed as grossly unfair and mean by our son's friends and acquaintances. Like Shylock, our son wanted justice and wanted me to allow justice to flow HIS way and it didn't work like that. He lost the verdict.
The court of the house is me, as judge and jury representative and our kitties as the jurors. The defendent was over-ruled and lost his gaming privilege.
Wow. As for Shylock, I think that that Shakespeare was attempting to show ALL different kinds of people. The fact that the character is seen in a negative light is a matter of viewpoint. I see Shylock as an educational tool; he wanted what he wanted when he wanted it and how he wanted it to be. Not everyone sees justice in that way. Ergo, educational and for many justice may not be served.
In our house we have several phrases that pop up periodically, "Would've, Should've and Could've; mean nothing" another is, "What goes around comes around."
Maybe we all need to understand where the others are coming from. I certainly understand that Penelope's boys are playing video games, sitting still amd being quiet (bonus) but for those of us trying to extract ourselves from video game land, a blog like that doesn't help much.
"Shakespeare helps quite a lot. There is a good deal of sense in Shakespeare; he's fundamentally logical and sound. Take Shylock for instance. Shylock wanted justice, he wouldn't accept mediation; he wouldn't accept an iota less than what he considered his due. He wanted justice. If you refuse to share and continue to demand justice you can't complain when justice is given you."
As a parent of a kid on the spectrum so many times I hear people wanting justice from everywhere. Schools are big when the kids are of the age. I believe that most of the work with our kids begins at home. We demand that the schools do certain things: and yet at home the consistency isn't the same.
What brought this up was something I read yesterday about a blog by Penelope Trunk. You have heard me mention her before. I ususally find her pretty amusing. Yesterday wasn't so funny. She was proponing the use of the dreaded video games. As a resource (cooking and other excercise venues), video games are probably OK. The idea that she had that they were a way of learning to work together and create teamwork was really a stretch. I realize she is writing from her point of view, but she doesn't realize that as her kids get bigger the video games get more addicting and she and her farmer are going to be in a fine kettle of fish when the boys decide to beat the boogers out of them after playing for an afternoon. I think when her boys are bigger than she is; she may want to re-think this video game option.
I don't like video games or the systems. I have a numbe rof reasons why, and although I don't go into a ton of detail about it I will say that the over stimulization of the games is really a bad thing (understatement). Some kids on the spectrum do get physically violent after a stint of playing (they make the news). Here in our house we allow for 15 minute increments timed with an egg timer. After what we call an "episode" (refusal to do homework or cooperate) several weeks ago our son lost the video gaming privilege until January. We will re-evaluate at that time; and we are viewed as grossly unfair and mean by our son's friends and acquaintances. Like Shylock, our son wanted justice and wanted me to allow justice to flow HIS way and it didn't work like that. He lost the verdict.
The court of the house is me, as judge and jury representative and our kitties as the jurors. The defendent was over-ruled and lost his gaming privilege.
Wow. As for Shylock, I think that that Shakespeare was attempting to show ALL different kinds of people. The fact that the character is seen in a negative light is a matter of viewpoint. I see Shylock as an educational tool; he wanted what he wanted when he wanted it and how he wanted it to be. Not everyone sees justice in that way. Ergo, educational and for many justice may not be served.
In our house we have several phrases that pop up periodically, "Would've, Should've and Could've; mean nothing" another is, "What goes around comes around."
Maybe we all need to understand where the others are coming from. I certainly understand that Penelope's boys are playing video games, sitting still amd being quiet (bonus) but for those of us trying to extract ourselves from video game land, a blog like that doesn't help much.
