My son spends a lot of his time playing video games. I have accepted that this is his passion... and maybe very well play a part in his career path. but lately he's also been watching videos of other people playing video games on YouTube! Please help me see a reason that this is not just a waste of time... I know you'll have a good way to look at this latest passion.
Musicians watch videos of other musicians. Athletes watch videos of other athletes. Chess players have even been known to watch other people play chess with something approaching awe and rapture. Woodworkers watch woodworking shows. Cooks watch cooking shows. Dancers watch better dancers and learn like crazy!
Speaking of musicians, I've played a LOT of piano, and guitar in my life. I play recorder better than I play either of those, and have played formally (sonatas) and informally (by ear, in the dark, at campfires). I sing, lots of styles, can harmonize in different styles... LOTS of music. NOT a career path for me. It's a very large part of the way I see/hear/experience the world, but my "career path" had to do more with writing and learning (learning about how people learn).
Lots of people knit or crochet without it becoming part of a career path. How many men can fix their own cars but have never fixed another person's car for money? Cooking? Taking photos? Holly can do some GREAT stuff with a camera and a cheap outdated version of Photoshop Elements. She did these herself—took the photos herself and manipulated the images beautifully. (Click them for more images and details.) I don't care whether she ever makes a career of it. I do show her cool photos I find in magazines or books or online, though.
She enjoys it, she does it to share with her friends on MySpace, she learned it gradually, by experimentation, and by learning different tricks from others. She has surpassed me and Marty in her use of that program, which cost me $80 just as it was obsolete because a new version was out. There are other photo manipulation programs, though, and some free online. What we have is Photoshop Elements 2.0
Don't worry about what kids choose to do. Make sure they have lots of choices, and don't discriminate between what you think might be career path and what might "only" be joyful activity and self-expression, or what might seem to be nothing more than relaxation or escapism. Let them choose and be and do.
People have complained that their kids have watched videos of OTHER kids playing video games.
Those parents have probably watched videos of others playing golf, or bowling, or painting, playing baseball or tennis, dancing, running, ice-skating, cooking, sewing, fighting (fists/feet/swords/whatever), hunting or fishing or hiking, climbing, skating, skateboarding, skiing, repairing toilets, caulking tile, fixing hair, putting on make-up, inducing dogs to do tricks, riding horses, photographing wildlife, digging up fossils, decorating cakes, telling stories or jokes, singing, playing musical instruments, building musical instruments out of wood, or vegetables...
You can go there and read, but some of the comments there or in an unschooling discussion, same week, are:
