Taking Children Seriously

The TCS Paradigm Shift

Posted by Mary Schultz on the TCS List on Thu, 28 Feb., 2002, at 13:59:33 -0500


Is TCS always possible?

I think I have discovered the very interestingly wrong thing about this question.

In order to ask the question, one must have come to understand what TCS means (otherwise, the complex project of taking children seriously would not be presenting itself as a problem to you), and once one has come to such an understanding, it is no longer possible not to take children seriously.

One may fail to avoid coercing, and one may fail to provide one's child sound advice, etc., etc., in particular circumstances, perhaps even in most circumstances, in small degree and/or large... but one cannot fail, ever again, to notice how one is taking one's children in light of the knowledge one now has about TCS.

In other words, TCS is one of those types of knowledge that cannot be taken back – once understood, it constitutes a true paradigm shift within the individual mind.

One may “leave TCS” or “reject TCS” or “deny TCS” or “repress TCS,” etc., etc., but such leavetakings must always afterwards take TCS into account, and one will be in the same boat one was in when one was trying to “be TCS,” i.e., thinking about taking children seriously.

So, I'd say that the more interesting question is, “Is it possible to not take children seriously, once one has understood TCS?”

The answer to that question, IMFO, is “No.”

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