Well, I think small children should be with their parents, definitely. I think all the experiments like the kibbutz and communal living where the children don't stay with their parents, are very radical, and I don't think they work particularly well, in the sense of what the child needs.
Are there any primitive societies like this? When I was in college and studying anthropology I remember things like extended nursing until five or six years old, and everyone in the family sleeping in the same bed. Babies thrive when they live mostly in touch with their parents' bodies, not living away from them.
I wonder how it came to be that children were taught their parents' belief systems? Are there any societies where that is not the case? I suspect that in primitive life, common belief systems create cohesion and common goals and agreed-upon behavioral limits. It doesn't seem like we need those very much anymore in the global village, though.
I know that teaching your children your own beliefs is not instinctual, however, because not all parents do it. Maybe the United Nations could address the issue! ;^)
I think it would be better now that we are so globally oriented, to have more harmony and less fighting, and everyone choosing a belief system would definitely spread them out so there were more opportunities for common understandings, and less for polarization.
Another really good reason to do this is that everyone everywhere would realize their religion was a belief system, not concrete reality, and perhaps there would be more tolerance and acceptance because of that. |
