tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post9009125125926301556..comments2024-03-29T01:07:30.224-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Family DevaluedStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-17610782251825135352015-05-09T18:00:18.621-07:002015-05-09T18:00:18.621-07:00Should parents decide not to read to their childre...Should parents decide not to read to their children because others do not?<br /><br />Swift seems to think they should. I say those who don't read to their children should be arrested and jailed for child abuse. That sentence makes me sound like a nutcase, doesn't it. I merely attempt to demonstrate absurdity. <br /><br />The Left's solution is to bring down the rich, and not to raise up the poor.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-25596745262370492192015-05-08T14:12:22.920-07:002015-05-08T14:12:22.920-07:00My friend was raised on a kibbutz with a children&...My friend was raised on a kibbutz with a children's house. <br /><br />She said she was lonely at night when a child at a normal home would have been comforted by her parents.<br /><br />In the end, neither children nor parents liked the arrangement and it does not exist on the kibbutz anymore.<br /><br /> Recruiting Animalhttp://recruitinganimal.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-83258216206211450832015-05-08T08:52:47.584-07:002015-05-08T08:52:47.584-07:00Yes, it does sound weird to value "fairness&q...Yes, it does sound weird to value "fairness" so as Adam Swift seems to.<br /><br />But behaviorist B.F. Skinner also thought parents and families should be eliminated in favor of communal raising of children by caring professionals.<br /><br />I think remember part of his logic was that young people had the best chance of healthy sperm and eggs, and presumably we could avoid all the expensive and wasteful fertility treatments. And of course it would mean women could be as equals in careers as men, after they've got the babies properly birthed.<br /><br />I don't get too upset over such ideas, and it would be interesting to see how such arrangements would work out in practice. Do we really need a single mother and a single father to teach boys and girls to become mature women and men?<br /><br />Didn't Israel try out some communes for a while? Right, the Kibbitz? Really it sounds very much like what Skinner proposed, maybe he comed from their efforts?<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbutz<br />---------<br />Along with gender equality, the issue of parenting under the communal way of life was a concern. The parental tendency is to view the child as a personal possession and to dominate them. The founding members of the kibbutz agreed that this was not conducive to community life. They also thought it was selfish of parents to want to control their children and that this did not give room for the child to grow as their own person.<br /><br />To solve these issues the founders created the communal children's houses, where the children would spend most of their time; learning, playing and sleeping. Parents spent 3 to 4 hours a day in the afternoon with their children after work and before dinner. This is actually a lot more quality time for parents to spend with their kids than in other societies.<br /><br />Collective child rearing was also a way to escape the patriarchal society that the founders came from. Children would not be dependent on their fathers economically, socially, legally or otherwise and this would eliminate the father's authority and uproot the patriarchy.<br /><br />In Kibbutz life, group pressure to conform is particularly strong. It is a subject of debate within the kibbutz movement as to how successful kibbutz education was in developing the talents of gifted children. Several kibbutz-raised children look back and say that the communal system stifled ambition; others say that bright children were nonetheless encouraged. Bruno Bettelheim had predicted that kibbutz education would yield mediocrity: "[kibbutz children] will not be leaders or philosophers, will not achieve anything in science or art." <br /><br />However, it has been noted that although kibbutzim comprise only 5% of the Israeli population, surprisingly large numbers of kibbutzniks become teachers, lawyers, doctors, and political leaders.<br />---------<br /><br />But whatever we might make of communal raising of children, it looks like it only has a chance if it is "tribally raising", a relatively small cohesive group with widely agreed values and goals.<br /><br />And it obviously has to be voluntary, so its not going to help with Swift's strange world, or maybe not until we separate ourselves further from biology, and have test-tube babies, and artificial wombs, so the children really would belong to no parents.<br /><br />That would be scary. We might even imagine such children might not have souls like us real humans, and could be vampires or something. Who knows what such strange creatures might do?<br /><br />But maybe when humans eventually go to the stars they'll need babies breed for very specific skills, and us "random DNA" people won't make the cut compared to someone who was breed for their life in space?<br /><br />Maybe they'll become 7' tall martians, unable to stand on 1-earth gravity worlds? So maybe martians won't need families at least.<br /><br />Yes, philosophers have to be creative to keep their paychecks flowing, solving important problems of a future without limits.<br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.com