entrenched ideas

[morrison]

... ... ... Children speak aloud what adults think quietly. Martin

We as adults carry it so very far by teaching our children little or nothing about looking past perceived boundaries. We seem to miss the opportunities to show our progeny that jumping out of the box may be acceptable, that thinking outside the prescribed thoughts is not unlawfull. Worst of all, we don't show our youth the way to form their own conclusions through thinking, experimentation and study and research for information gathering.

[Chef]

I must admit though that one of my happiest kilt moments was when I heard a child in Trenton, NJ, not more than eight mind you, say, "Mom, Mom, look there is a man in a kilt". I thought there is hope.

[Andrewson]

I must admit though that one of my happiest kilt moments was when I heard a child in Trenton, NJ, not more than eight mind you, say, "Mom, Mom, look there is a man in a kilt". I thought there is hope.

... and one of my recent happy moments was when a four-year-old boy saw me coming towards him in the street and said to his Mum "That man's wearing a kilt like Archie on Balamory" For those outside the UK, Balamory is a childrens' TV show set in Tobermory in Scotland and one of the characters, Archie the Inventor, always wears a kilt. Judging by the happy smiles on both the boy's and his mother's faces, that boy clearly now takes the whole idea of a man wearing a kilt as a perfectly normal thing. That may be due to the fact that in the show nobody makes Archie's form of dress an issue at all. It just isn't talked about. That is just as it should be. But, as Martin's experience shows, it is not like that often enough (yet?) and the brain washing continues.

[wesd]

GOOD DAY, Last year at a local Irish fest a small boy (about 4 or 5) lookup to me and said "are you a boy are a girl"? Well I simply said that I was a boy. But you have a skirt on, boys wear pants, I have pants I'm a boy. Well both mom and dad are standing very close by and can hear everything. Now mom looks like any youg mother from the burbs, simple top and jeans. Now dad has a cable knit sweater AND A KILT. I point this out to the lad that his mom has pants on but his dad is wearing a kilt like me. H is little brain goes to work on this problem, his response, he's a boy, boys wear pants so mom must be a boy and both dad and myself wear girls. Someday maybe very soon he would find out that he was wrong but I could not get around the kid logic.

[David Dalglish]

My Grandson, on the rare ocassion I go over to see him with shorts or trousers on, says to me, Grandad, why are you not wearing your kilt. Its the norm for him to see me kilted, & he has never once called it a skirt--Funny is'nt it