Posted on 06/21/2010 10:05:41 PM PDT by Melissa 24
ROM the time they met in kindergarten until they were 15, Robin Shreeves and her friend Penny were inseparable. They rode bikes, played kickball in the street, swam all summer long and listened to Andy Gibb, the Bay City Rollers and Shaun Cassidy on the stereo. When they were little, they liked Barbies; when they were bigger, they hung out at the roller rink on Friday nights. They told each other secrets like which boys they thought were cute, as best friends always do. Readers' Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. Today, Ms. Shreeves, of suburban Philadelphia, is the mother of two boys. Her 10-year-old has a best friend. In fact, he is the son of Ms. Shreevess own friend, Penny. But Ms. Shreevess younger son, 8, does not. His favorite playmate is a boy who was in his preschool class, but Ms. Shreeves says that the two dont get together very often because scheduling play dates can be complicated; they usually have to be planned a week or more in advance. Hell say, I wish I had someone I can always call, Ms. Shreeves said. One might be tempted to feel some sympathy for the younger son. After all, from Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn to Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, the childhood best friend has long been romanticized in literature and pop culture not to mention in the sentimental memories of countless adults. But increasingly, some educators and other professionals who work with children are asking a question that might surprise their parents: Should a child really have a best friend?
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
So the best way to discourage bullying is to prohibit close friendships? I don't know whether to vomit or cry.
It makes me want to vomit out my eye sockets.
Why are we surprised...when THERE IS NO GOD IN SOCIETY...people believe they can control everything from the weather to human nature.
Liberals always ask the dumbest questions.
They're probably threatened in that their devotion to their dogmatic worldview won't allow close friendships.
When the state wants you to have a best friend, it will issue you one.
Until then, the State is your best friend, citizen.
Sullivan was one of those savants who had the uncanny ability to relate to and cure schizophrenia without medication. Yes, they appear, and reinvent the wheel, every thirty-forty years or so.
One of Sullivan's insights was the essential value of what he called, simply, "buddies." He noted that people who had intimate(non-erotic) same-sex best friends as children, seldom developed severe mental illness later in life.
Anyone who attempts to suppress a 'best-friend' relationship ought to be considered a perpetrator of child abuse and be treated accordingly.
This garbage was obviously dreamt up by a bunch of silly adults who urgently need to get lives of their own. Amazing that they don’t grasp that best friends stick up for each other when somebody tries to bully one of them, and weaken the hold that cliques have on individual members.
“Anyone who attempts to suppress a ‘best-friend’ relationship ought to be considered a perpetrator of child abuse and be treated accordingly.”
I think you’re on to something there.
Schools have 0 business asking such questions. We need laws that limit schools to basics 3 rs etc. Social engineering needs to be stopped!
It makes me want to vomit out my eye sockets.
this
It’s another crazy idea manufactered by crazy people.
of course that raises the question of whether it’s because having a best friend protects against developing later mental illness, or whether it means children prone to mental illness find it difficult to make friends.
It makes me sad to see how times have changed wrt having a best friend.
And, recess...
Close same-sex friendships are natural and a precursor to opposite-sex relationships. It’s cliques that need to be discouraged, if anything does. Maybe they can’t be discouraged, but the phenomenon of the In Crowd has left many a child with sad high school memories.
Bullying should be discouraged also—it’s kind of an offshoot of the In Crowd phenomenon.
I think it means that people incapable of making close friends are most likely to become psychiatrists.
...”Why are we surprised...when THERE IS NO GOD IN SOCIETY...people believe they can control everything from the weather to human nature”...
YES! We are seeing pure evil paraded as “caring.” It is a way to have the population accept enslavement rather than human rights. It is common sense turned inside out and upside down..It is irrational and will not stand over time because “normal” will be reasserted at some point in the future. It may take war to reassert human rights but it will happen sometime in the future.
As a famous little girl once said, “Boys are Aliens”.
:)
I think it means that people incapable of making close friends are most likely to become psychiatrists.
That’s MY take!!!!
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