Taking Children Seriously

From: Peter C. McCluskey (pcm@rahul.net)
Date: Thu Jul 10 2003 - 14:06:11 MDT

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     hal@finney.org (Hal Finney) writes:
    >Deutsch also links to an organization, Taking Children Seriously,
    >http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/~tcs/, dedicated to the principle that "it is
    >possible and desirable to bring up children entirely without doing things
    >to them against their will, or making them do things against their will,
    >and that they are entitled to the same rights, respect and control over
    >their lives as adults."

     I found this site quite interesting. I was surprised at the degree to
    which they are able to use a Popperian approach to conclude that popular
    dogmas about children are cruel.
     I generally agree that children should be treated as rational beings,
    and that disagreements between adults and children should cause us to
    suspect a disagreement in goals rather than that the children are being
    foolish and need to have the adults' opinions forced on them.
     The "Gateway Religions" essay at
    http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/~tcs/Articles/KSGatewayReligions.html
    is particularly amusing: "Look for the following DANGER SIGNS that
    may indicate your child has been using religion".
     But I'm unconvinced by the TCS claims about what obligations parents
    have towards their children, as illustrated by this attitude towards
    carnivorous children:
         The vegetarian who believes that meat eating ought to be legal ought
         to buy it for their child and give them the respect they would give
         another human being.
    I didn't see any argument that this view is better than the more standard
    view that the parental payment for the food gives them substantial
    authority to influence what their children eat, just as it would if they
    were feeding adult friends. Did anyone see an argument that I missed?

    -- 
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Peter McCluskey          | "To announce that there must be no criticism of
    http://www.rahul.net/pcm | the President, or that we are to stand by the
                             | President right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
                             | and servile, but morally treasonable to the
                             | American public." - Theodore Roosevelt
    


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