I remember when I was a little girl I spent a majority of my free time outside, jumping rope, playing tag, exploring in the woods behind our house, horsing around on playgrounds, and riding my bike all over the neighborhood. I even walked to school. I got black eyes, a minor concussion, and the average splinters and scrapes... nothing too drastic. We had a computer, but it was a far cry from today's machines -- the monitor was an actual television, and the one game we had, a version of Donkey Kong, was on what appeared to be a cassette tape that you inserted into a little special tape deck (I'm sure it has a name... and could it really have been an actual cassette? Dad?). Now kids play a lot more video games, and spend a lot less time outside. It's so easy to lament this change, but it's not all bad -- the new Wii system, for instance, is actually relatively active, and video games can teach kids some things. On the flipside, it sometimes seems like it IS all bad outside, that pedophiles lurk near every playground, that no crosswalk is safe from careening buses, that outdoor sports are just too darn risky. Well, maybe the way to fight back is to return to the dangerous stuff boys (and girls!) love to do, stuff that's just dangerous enough to be even more interesting than getting Zelda through that castle. The Dangerous Book for Boys has all kinds of ideas... what did your dad teach you that felt a little perilous? Have you taught your son to dirt bike, shoot arrows, or build a birdhouse with (horrors!) power tools? And standby... The Daring Book for Girls is on its way!
Blog of the Nation
Yes, those were cassette tapes and that was a (special purpose) cassette tape player and the computer was a Commodore VIC-20, and the game was, indeed, Donkey Kong.
Thos
Oh, I do hope the Dangerous Books will include instructions on building tree houses and proper snow/ice forts!
I think the most important thing that should be taught is the thing that is so seldom taught...critical thinking skills. Don't just believe, know. There is so much BS in the world it is important to be able to tell sense from nonsense and be confident to call nonsense by its true name.
I still don't get why this only for boys. Neither did a reviewer (see: http://www.parenthacks.com/2007/06/interview_with_.html )
I really loved his non answer. I truly doubt that the "Daring Book for Girls" will be as good. Buy this book for your kids. Why should boys have all the fun? Oh by the way, six month girls giggle when they are pushed on a swing, too.
...another reminder of the circular, self-reinforcing ideology that boys and girls are different encourages boys to be active, to explore, build, investigate (etc.) while girls are taught to be passive and to care about "looking pretty." Girls who scrape their knees and like to climb trees despite their gender training are called 'tomboys' because it couldn't possibly be "girlish" to play rough, to want to investigate the natural world, to get dirt under their fingernails, to build a tree house.
I can't agree more with taketwo. This book should be for all children- there is so much need for girls as well as boys to get out of the house, scrape their knees, and learn for themselves. I agree with the author that our society is harming boys with enforced ideas of maculinity, but reinforcing those "hard-wired" "differences" between girls and boys is not the answer! Get all kids outside! Get all kids personal attention, and get all kids to find themselves, and then embrace them for it. And write a book for little boys about cooking and playing house, and write a book for little girls about paper airplanes and knots! If only we had learned that in Girl Scouts, in addition to pie-baking!
His comment that "when you're a boy, all things are posssible" stopped me cold. That statement sounds so natural...but substitute "girl" and suddenly it'd be a political statement.
If he means "when you're a child" he should say it.
He reminded me forecefully of the grandfather I know who had three grand-daughters that he loved dearly, but when he then had a baby grandson crowed that *now* he had a little captain to train for his boat.
When I was a kid, we used the Boy Scout Guide to fill the niche that seems to be getting filled today by this book. The The Dangerous Book for Boys sounds fascinating, but I do hope the good old boy scout guide gets a boost from the apparent demand for knot-tying knowledge.
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