Re: Raising kids [was Re: Freedom or death? ]
The Low Golden Willow (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Wed, 20 Aug 1997 12:53:51 -0700 (PDT)
} YakWaxx@aol.com wrote:
}
} > In the long-term we will have sensory-rich physically safe environments for
} > both adults and children. [snip] If children are in an environment where they are
} > physically safe there is no need for any such parenting.
Err, I think protecting children from their physical environment is
probably the smaller part of parenting, at least by the time they're age
7 or so. The main function of raising kids is teaching them, and while
part of that is physically practical stuff, a very large part of
parenting is (or should be) civilizing the brats. Children do not raise
themselves well. _Lord of the Flies_ and gangs and all that. Our
progress in manipulating the physical environment has been coupled with
progress in learning how to get along with each other in pleasant ways,
and a pack of kids isn't going to recapitulate thousands of years of
development in either field without substantial guidance.
Merry part,
-xx- Damien R. Sullivan X-) <*> http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix
"Second, medieval Icelandic institutions have several peculiar and
interesting characteristics; they might almost have been invented by a
mad economist to test the lengths to which market systems could supplant
government in its most fundamental functions." -- DDFR