No Problem

When I was a student, I wasn’t any less outspoken than I am now…so, sometimes my instructors and I, um, disagreed. Usually, it wasn’t anything more than a spirited philosophical exchange (which as a teacher I can appreciate because at least it means someone is listening), but once or twice (or maybe three or four times) the disagreement went a bit further than I would have thought wise had I thought about it ahead of time at all. One such encounter ended with me leaving the class because I knew the teacher and I would never be able to see eye-to-eye and I never risk good grades. The course was a Philosophy class where the teacher was a ‘60s throwback who didn’t shower or change his Hawaiian shirt after spending time in his herbariffic van--and who decided it would be a better world if we never told children “no,” to avoid crushing their little spirits. Having had three children of my own and being very certain that appropriate boundaries are good things, I vocalized my resistance to such a world. Which did not sit well with Timothy Leary. So, we parted ways. When author David Shannon was a boy, he apparently fantasized about a world with no “no” as well. He even wrote a baby book about it--that his mom found many years later and he turned into real book called No, David! Seeing it from the kid perspective, I realize that “no” is no fun. But sometimes it’s necessary.

http://www.amazon.com/No-David-Shannon/dp/0590930028

http://www.scholastic.com/titles/nodavid/davidshannon.htm