Happy Fourth Of July -- some thoughts on the freedom of our children

Reading Encyclopedia Brown and other classics like the Ramona books with my kids, or watching ET,  the Goonies or the Navigators with them, I realize the biggest factor separating my generation from the ones after is NOT technology. It is, quite literally, the independence and freedom my generation was arguably the last to have as kids. You don't see kids now all over neighborhoods freely playing and constructing tree forts or going to the grocery stores on errands for family, playing alone in a park without an adult, let alone bicycling miles by themselves around town. My daughter, at nine is ready for so much more when it comes to participating in the community then there is opportunity available to her, in volunteering, or otherwise than there was for me at the same age.  Her options are severely limited to Girl Scouts. If we don't give kids responsibility and place in the community how are they supposed to grow into "mature responsible" adults who participate in the community? When I say community I refer to it in the broad, local and world sense. In the context of today's world, it is essential for children to learn who they are as a local and global citizen.

If we want children to take the initiative and be good leaders who can creatively and practically solve problems, there are things they need to learn by interacting independently on their own that they simply cannot learn otherwise.

That being said, we had a great Fourth of July. We celebrated watching the fireworks at the local middle school where they put on quite show. Since fireworks are legal in the county where I live, there were plenty of fireworks to be seen before and after the main extravaganza. It was not hard to imagine the fireworks hundreds of years ago and feel they answered a call to celebrate freedoms hard won.