How can we rediscover the concept of original virtue, a value the is prevalent in many hunter-gatherer cultures, as opposed to the concept of original sin, which underpins our own society, to such an extent that we tend to regard children from birth as being anti-social, uncooperative, and sort of imbued with the Devil? There is a long history within the Judaeo-Christian (and others) tradition of treating children as if they need the (d)evil driven out of them before they can become civilised human beings. Added to that, in modern times we have almost constant targetted advertising, a plethora of unhealthy 'cheap' processed foods and a stressfull, competitive social environment, and it is no wonder that so many of our children are showing signs of dis-ease ... and in time, we may be thankfull for those symtpoms, for they show us where we are going wrong in child-care. I read a book on this, it is called "Toxic Childhood", and is a very well written and revealing investigation into how we are treating our children in the 21st Century of the so-called progressive 'developed' world. I heartily reccomend the book to anyone who has an interest in these matters, and in fact to anyone at all really for we are all parents of all children. |