As a student of human development I read stories about the so called feral child, a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and has no or little experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language.
The idea that nurturing is so imporant to a child's development children is illustrated in the heartbreaking story of Danielle, a feral child found living in an urban apartment under horrific conditions. Danielle was almost seven years old, yet she had never been to school, didn’t speak, and did not react to human contact. If you have a few minutes, check out this story of human evil and goodness here. Oh, and if you have kids, why not give them a few extra hugs today?
(H.T. to Neatorama for bringing it to my attention.)
Testing
2 weeks ago
1 comment:
It's stories like this that legitimize my thought that you should need a license to be a parent.
I discussed this with my friend Pasith, who agrees with me, though we both know it's impossible to implement. While brainstorming on the topic we did think that some kind of incentive for parents to take a parenting course, like a tax benefit, could be a good idea. I know there are parents that don't need such a thing, but so many do. It's a thorny issue with lots of moral, ethical, and legal problems with it, but don't we owe it to the next generation to see that they are raised by responsible parents?
Jay
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