Journal entry

这是作者读了巴特三篇文章后的感触。作者总是在想，当他第一次来美国的时候，她的生活会不会变得容易一些，当他还是个孩子的时候，他的父母却少了他。

The three articles “Toys” by Barthes, “Toys Aren’t Us” by Elkind and “The Overprotected Kid” by Hanna Rosin all focus on issues related with kids. “Toys” indicates that most French toys are imitation artifacts of adults’ world such as school or the army, and toys with novelty which can stimulate children’s creativity are very rare. The article also puts forward that toys can be valued differently by their substances. For example, toys made of wood would bring much more pleasure and humanity than those made of plastics. The second article is a comprehensive study of toys. It discusses the benefit changes of toy play from personal and social aspects. In each part’s discussion, toys are categorized into three kinds and every section has a detailed description of each kind including the historical development and the influence. By providing an overall perspective of toys, the article declares that toy play in modern times functions very little in benefiting kids’ development, because most of the toys cannot stimulate kids’ imagination and fantasy. It summarizes that it’s the consumerism culture that downplays the real role of toy play. In “The Overprotected Kid”, the writer begins her concern over kids’ parenting by talking about what is happening with her five-year-old son and other kids in a special playground. In the playground, children are allowed to play dirt or take whatever adventures they like without the supervision of their parents. In the article, the author first depicts the reality that kids are overprotected by their families or the society like the invention of safe and uniformed playground, and then she illustrates the reasons why kids are overprotected. Though some accidents have happened, the article argues that the odds is very little and overprotection is not good for both the physical and spiritual development of kids. Kids will be stronger with minor physical hurt and will be more independent and confident by overcoming difficulties by themselves.

Though the three articles center on different subjects, they all express concern over children’s development by discussing what they play with or where they play. Lacking ability of imagination or creativity is the same thing the articles worry about. In addition, they all show their nostalgia for the old times. For the first two articles about toys, they indicate that toys from older times are more inventive or more humane. And in the last article, the author devotes much part to compare what happened in the past with the kids and what is happening nowadays.

I was very impressed by what Rosin wrote in the last article. I was born in the city and as a girl, I had been always watched by my parents. I was told to be at home before 10 pm if I was hanging out with my friends and my phone wouldn’t stop ringing since 9:30 pm since they needed to check my safety. It was also the same case with my girl friends. We assumed it was how we girls should be raised. But later in my life, just a year before I came here, I made a good friend whose family just moved into the city from a rural area. When I first met her, she was just like my mom, mature and capable. Since I knew her, she has never failed my admiration with her competence in handling all the troubles by herself. There is a famous Chinese old saying that kids are more independent in poorer families. I first thought it was because of her family. However, when I got acquainted with more friends like her, I finally concluded with the real reason. Nearly every competent and independent friend I know received little “attention” when they were kids. It doesn’t mean that they were neglected by their parents, but they were seldom supervised by their parents in their spare time and they were offered much more freedom to make decisions. My friend told me she could go to Karaoke with classmates until the midnight when she was only a junior high school student, which was impossible for me at that age. For her, it’s also hard to understand why my parents kept ringing my phone when it was just 9:30 pm. I remembered very clearly that one time after my mom hung up the phone, she asked me “Haven’t you told your mom that you are on the taxi and why is she keeping checking on you? It was just 5 minutes ago!”.  I always wonder if my life would be much easier when I first came to America had my parents supervised me less when I was a kid?

The following are my two open-ended questions:
1.Is it fair that just one kid died due to the safety problem of a playground and is there a good solution in building an adventurous playground but avoiding the possibility of being sued at the same time?
2.It is estimated that at least 200 thousand kids are missing in China every year, so how can we draw a safe line between overprotection and necessary protection?


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