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