lets start with unschooling. is it any good? will it fail to be negligent? front and center on unschooling.com we find:
"I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience." -- Anne Sullivan
leave child to self. add water. mix. instant better child.
but that's not all. being outside causes people to be smarter. so does handcrafts instead of technology. we must oppose anything artificial!
ok next is AP. front and center we find:
“If we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children; and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won’t have to struggle; we won’t have to pass fruitless idle resolutions, but we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which consciously or unconsciously the whole world is hungering.
-Mahatma Gandhi
So first off children are tools for a political end. Next they are supposed to grow up ignorant -- this must be preserved at all costs. If they grow up ignorant, we won't have to struggle with them, they won't know anything but what we told them, so they'll act just like we always wanted. PS it's all about peace and love! (PPS if you've ever seen Trigun... lol)
But ok that's not quite as damning as the other one. Let's find another. Off to the What is AP? page written by the founders.
Whether you're new to Attachment Parenting (AP) philosophy or not, you've probably experienced that living in our culture can be confusing at best and very difficult at worst. All the popular childrearing books on the market today seem to negate each other--"Don't pick up your baby every time she cries, you'll spoil her"... "Babies can never be spoiled by picking them up" ... or "Babies need to learn to comfort themselves or they'll never learn!" New parents are quickly overwhelmed. The beauty of Attachment Parenting is that it is so simple! AP teaches parents that it's ok to listen to their baby and listen to their own hearts. It's a way of parenting that helps parents see the world through their child's eyes, a world of innocence, a world of unknowns, a world with so much to learn and a world that requires love in order to live. Even when parents feel confident in practicing AP they often have to weather criticism from well-meaning family and friends. Ours is a non-nurturing, no-touch culture against which AP runs counter. The pressure can place a lot of strain on parents. API was born out of these concerns and a desire to support all parents.
so let's see. they hate our culture. they think if we just "listen to our hearts" everything will be ok. now, you're supposed to listen to child too. ... unless you're heart overrides him. hell, even the most abusive parent will listen to child unless he doesn't feel like it. also the main problem with parenting today is failing to hug, "nurture", and love children enough. so do that. also don't stress out. if you're too stressed we have forums where people will say you're doing a good job and mean people are banned. and if you're really stressed, we recommend you just take a break for a while, to nurture yourself. as long as your heart says it's ok.
in conclusion i maintain left-wing parenting sucks. and although right-wing parenting also sucks, i think it's slightly better. mainly because i hate negligence so much.
Messages (10)
An example of a TCS-friendly right-wing parenting institution, please?
an example of a tcs-friendly parenting institution, please?
i believe there's no such thing.
Attachment parenting and unschooling.
umm if you have an argument against the points in my entry, you can give it, but ummmm didn't i just write an entry on why i think those 2 suck?
I don't have time to argue with your entry and I don't have time to set out everything TCS-friendly about AP and unschooling. It would take ages, and isn't interesting to me because I know it already. That doesn't oblige me to remain silent rather than answer your question above.
well i have an even better argument that yours, that it proves you're wrong. but i'm too busy to give it. but i promise it's real and has no flaws in it.
OK, looking forward to it one day! :-)
Might AP be seen as the other side of the "I must not spoil my child by hugging it" coin? ie "I MUST hug my child".
Some children hate being held and cuddled - from very early on. Not very TCS to insist on snuggling up with them 24/7.
I think I'd rather be trying to be a TCS parent than trying to AP, because AP is still about what the parent wants (the fact that it so often seems to go with veganism, communism and knitting one's own pasta is a side issue, I think).
I don't think AP is any more negligent than the "traditional family values" end of the scale; they're all coercive, dammit.
Do some people find TCS via AP? I mean, the AP principles really only apply to very small children don't they? What happens next? If what happens next is something moving towards TCS then three million cheers.
Er... further to my comment on the post above this one:
Is AP an atmosphere in which TCS ideas might find fertile soil? That would be good, no?
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