From: bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com   
      
   	Well you should really read the afterword which is not   
   focused on school performance but on confabulations of   
   recovered memory forcusing on alleged witchcraft imposed   
   on pre-schoolers.  This transferred to the college students   
   who were using the steam tunnels to play a sort of Dungeons   
   and Dragons.   
   	As for school performance:   
   	 I blame the parents who were not so bright and who   
   considered that their school days were harmed by homework.   
   I had lots of homework in the 1950s.  I did it even though I   
   was absorbed by my extra-curricular reading to a severe degree.   
   	I did not like it but I considered it neccesary to the schooling   
   I was recieving.  I was in a parochial High School (RC) and definitely   
   reading stuff on the Index.  Stuff lIke the works of James Branch   
   Cabell and other fantasy books.  I read all the SF magazines in   
   available on my allowance and in Sacramento, CA.  I incessantly   
   shopped for the latest issues.  I bought old pulps and the copyright   
   breaking LOTR releases.   
      
   	But I still blame the classmates who did not understand the   
   neccesity of homework who softened the curriculum for their kids.   
   	   
   	More below;   
      
   On 1/30/26 09:41, Paul S Person wrote:   
   > On Thu, 29 Jan 2026 09:24:53 -0800, Bobbie Sellers   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 1/28/26 22:25, Bobbie Sellers wrote:   
   >   
   >    
   >   
   >> 	The Afterword is quite readable.  It discusses Dungeons and Dragons   
   >> and the ridiculous outcry that was made over the young people playing this   
   >>   game back in the day, witch-hunters and other madness.   
   >   
   > You have to understand this as part of the Blame Game: that is, an   
   > attempt to answer the question "why are our kids not learning?" that   
   > doesn't blame any adults. It is very important that no adults be   
   > blamed, for then the problem might be fixed, and where's the fun in   
   > that?   
   >   
   > In my experience, the first stage was /comic books/: kids weren't   
   > learning because they were reading /comic books/ instead of real   
   > books.   
   >   
   > Of course, I believe I have references to an earlier time when the   
   > problem was SF. This is why the earlier forms of SF were aimed at   
   > teenage boys and focused on the science and technology [1]: this was   
   > to make them /educational/ and so /ok to read/.   
   >   
   > [1] Did anyone else notice that, at the end of one of the Lensmen   
   > books, the boy is advised by a senior to marry the girl and the next   
   > book starts with them being married long enough to have children (and   
   > not, IIRC, infants either) with /no clue whatsoever where the babies   
   > came from being provided/? This is the sort of thing that the later   
   > sex-laded stories were reacting against.   
   >   
   > But then D&D (and similar games, but D&D was the best known and so   
   > most cited) arrived, became popular, and suddenly the kids weren't   
   > learning because they were not reading at all but playing a fantasy   
   > game. A fantasy game some parents objected to because of the witches   
   > and demons and so on. I don't know which they liked less: that the   
   > witches/demons were being /introduced/ to their kids, or that they   
   > were being treated as /imaginary fantasy characters/ while the parents   
   > preferred to treat them as possibly real.   
   >   
   > Since then, of course, we have had /1st-person shooters/, alleged to   
   > be responsible for every mass shooting done by a kid. Or young adult.   
   > Other factors, such as the level of abuse and hatred in public   
   > expression or the various economic problems, some with a very long   
   > history, are, of course, of no importance. "Pay no attention to the   
   > man behind the curtain".   
   >   
   > I honestly don't know the entire history of this nonsense or what is   
   > currently being blamed -- but, whatever it is, I am sure that it has   
   > absolutely no relation to what is really responsible. Which we must   
   > not investigate because it might turn out that the man behind the   
   > curtain is the very adults trying to blame something -- anything --   
   > else.   
      
   	Have a good day Paul.  Remember that in the earlier days the cirriculum   
   even in country schools was much tougher which is why my mom born in   
   1916 could help me with my 1950s homework.  And remember even Batman   
   was shaped by mothers who thought a two gun Batman would give their   
   kids bad ideas.   
      
   	bliss   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)