Penni, at SI all the children are gifted, and privileged as well!! We spend enormous amounts of energy steering them down socially active paths, instilling compassion and leadership qualities, and make almost no (serious) mistakes in rearing them. Women who have degrees in psychology and child development and law and the money and leisure time to invest tons of energy in their children are obviously going to do a reasonably good job at it. They have the luxury of staying home, extending nurturing, exposing their children to literature and music and art, and in general helping create children who are assets to the collective future.
These super kids are not the children we need to fear, however. I would agree that charity and entitlements are demeaning to adults, but as a society I think we need to be realistic, and at least care for the children of these poor souls in a way that breaks the cycle of poverty and abuse. France has a nursery school system, which I believe is mandatory, starting at age three. An important focus is to identify children at risk and intervene before they become sociopaths. In America, in the inner cities, we seem to be doing the opposite. We write these children off, for the most part. The City of Berkeley has an ambitious plan to ensure that every child living there is nurtured and grows up healthy. This is what a healthy society does! My opinion is that if you lose one generation of children, and then arm them to the hilt besides, the society itself is lost:
sfgate.com
I think we are rapidly losing the presumption in this society that children are innocent, and that some of them need our help in order to overcome accidents of birth for which they are not responsible. Now we are talking seriously of executing children, whose obvious mental problems we have studiously ignored, after making assault weapons readily available to them. It is really an example to me of how pathological America is that there seems no longer to be a general realization that this is a pay now or pay later kind of deal--serious intervention at a preschool level, and then providing QUALITY public education is very much less expensive, and carries a less painful human toll, than paying for prisons and other rehabilitation later.
One of the differences between western Europe and the United States is that in their social policies, Europeans recognize the importance of stable families and healthy children. As the European Community becomes more prevalent over each country, the legislative body has written into law an ambitious legislative policy to make sure that Europe's children are healthy and well cared for. Since most of these countries outlaw handguns, I don't think we will see children killing each other, either. Here is an article on what Ireland is considering--strengthening counseling so that marriages are stronger, and providing grants to help parents stay home with very small children, and also for quality preschool education.
irish-times.com
The United States has vast wealth, certainly enough to turn this situation around. However, in my opinion our vastly overreaching concepts of personal freedom (more weapons for everyone!), abhorrence of the most positive aspects of mixed systems with a tinge of socialism in areas like family policy, and continuing refusal to prioritize children will ensure that we continue down this road to ruin.
I think I'm beginning to ramble. I feel pretty strongly about all this, too!!! |
