Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Was my generation given a specific purpose?

C4 Diesel · 02-07-2005, 08:35 PM

This is the same as has always been said. I'd attribute it to hypocracy, only I feel that it's more appropriate to label it "ignorance" or something similar. Before people start getting mad at me, let me explain... (and no, I'm not calling anyone ignorant). I think that people are, to an extent, inherently self-rightous. We think that the way we do things is best. When people see children doing something different from what they would have done at that age, it is easy for the elders to think that "they know what's best" and immediately attribute that difference to any negative behavioral traits. Now do the elders really know what's best? Who knows. But the assumption that one automatically knows "what's best" is what I am calling ignorance, however I find this to be a common method of parenting. Mind you, it is necessary, because a child will pull the 100x "why?" and the elder will eventually run out of answers or talk in circles. The child, not knowing this questioning is illogical, will continue asking until the elder assumes the position of omniscience (at least relatively speaking) and asserts to the child that he/she has knowledge the child does not - end of story. Hence we have the elder/minor "I know better" conundrum.

Now there are 2 things that need to be shown to see who (if anyone) actually does "know better":

1) The younger generation's performance in the area of interest needs to be quantitatively measured against the statistics from previous generations. Are standardized test scores decreasing (if so, have they gotten harder)? Are children less emotionally mature with more emotional problems? These are measurable characteristics and can be statistically analyzed.

2) Any discrepancy needs to be attributed to a condition. Okay, so say children are less literate, but is that really because they're watching more TV? Perhaps TV isn't the issue and the real factor is that parents are not reading to/with them at a very young age? Maybe the school environment is not as condusive to learning as it used to be for whatever reason? Who knows.

If you asked for my opinion, I think a lot of it has to do with both parents working and children being in the care of family members less often than in the past. Most of the time a paid child care provider will not do the same job of parenting as an actual parent (or grandparent or unkle or whatever). The duty of the average child care provider is not to "parent", but merely to "supervise". I just don't think that children get as much emotional and intellectual development from being with a child care provider as they would from a parent. This parental discrepancy is only more pronounced when the child grows out of child-care age. Then the situation goes from "parenting vs child care" to "parenting vs nothing".

02-07-2005, 08:35 PM	#9 (permalink)
C4 Diesel Crazy Location: Troy, NY	This is the same as has always been said. I'd attribute it to hypocracy, only I feel that it's more appropriate to label it "ignorance" or something similar. Before people start getting mad at me, let me explain... (and no, I'm not calling anyone ignorant). I think that people are, to an extent, inherently self-rightous. We think that the way we do things is best. When people see children doing something different from what they would have done at that age, it is easy for the elders to think that "they know what's best" and immediately attribute that difference to any negative behavioral traits. Now do the elders really know what's best? Who knows. But the assumption that one automatically knows "what's best" is what I am calling ignorance, however I find this to be a common method of parenting. Mind you, it is necessary, because a child will pull the 100x "why?" and the elder will eventually run out of answers or talk in circles. The child, not knowing this questioning is illogical, will continue asking until the elder assumes the position of omniscience (at least relatively speaking) and asserts to the child that he/she has knowledge the child does not - end of story. Hence we have the elder/minor "I know better" conundrum. Now there are 2 things that need to be shown to see who (if anyone) actually does "know better": 1) The younger generation's performance in the area of interest needs to be quantitatively measured against the statistics from previous generations. Are standardized test scores decreasing (if so, have they gotten harder)? Are children less emotionally mature with more emotional problems? These are measurable characteristics and can be statistically analyzed. 2) Any discrepancy needs to be attributed to a condition. Okay, so say children are less literate, but is that really because they're watching more TV? Perhaps TV isn't the issue and the real factor is that parents are not reading to/with them at a very young age? Maybe the school environment is not as condusive to learning as it used to be for whatever reason? Who knows. If you asked for my opinion, I think a lot of it has to do with both parents working and children being in the care of family members less often than in the past. Most of the time a paid child care provider will not do the same job of parenting as an actual parent (or grandparent or unkle or whatever). The duty of the average child care provider is not to "parent", but merely to "supervise". I just don't think that children get as much emotional and intellectual development from being with a child care provider as they would from a parent. This parental discrepancy is only more pronounced when the child grows out of child-care age. Then the situation goes from "parenting vs child care" to "parenting vs nothing". __________________ C4 to your door, no beef no more...