You must know by now that I do not put much weight in "trends". I look for "events" that are the origin of most "trends". In the past, I showed how the invention of the transistor by Bell Labs was the "event" that created what most people see as a technological "trend". It was an event like the launch of Sputnik that was the "event" that lead to "trends" in space. Now, "How did we get into the mess?" Here again, I will show you at least two "events" that are major drivers of the "trends" that got us into our current mess.
First, I would like to explore Dr. Benjamin Spock and his book published in 1946 that was supposed to enlighten new parents on how to raise their children. You have to realize that parents had been doing it their own way for hundreds of thousands of years and that was how we had gotten to 1946. Were most parents wrong all that time and what would make a person think that a single book published in 1946 would be significantly better than the way that parenting had been done for thousands of years? It is interesting to note that Spock got his medical degree from Columbia. His first wife was Jane Cheney who was a civil right activist before we even knew what that was. It is also interesting that his second wife Morgan was also an social activist too. My family came to America in the early 1600's and seemed to have done a good job of feeding and educating their kids without the Spock book.
Timing was every thing. It was 1946 when the baby boom started after WWII and the Great Depression and this was exactly the time Spock's book was published. If you read Spock's book, you will find it to follow the social liberal agenda to the "T". I can boil it down another way. My family practiced "tough love" for 300 years with their kids and it seems to have yielded a fine product. I recall my father giving me a spanking and telling me that, "This hurts me as much as it hurts you". At the time I did not understand how significant that statement was, but I do now that I am both a parent, a grand parent and a great great grand parent. The very key point from the Spock book was to eliminate spankings and punishment in favor of "reasoning" with your children or being "their friend". Being a parent is a very important and difficult job and being your kid's best friend has to take back seat to your being a responsible parent. Now why is this so important as it relates to the mess that we now find ourselves in?
My family was a very religious family and they followed the rule, "spare the rod and spoil the child". This seemed to have worked for thousands of years and yet mew parents rejected this concept in favor of the Spock book. I still can not understand how a person who had such a long history of success raising kids could reject their history in favor of a social liberal who they did not know any thing about. There was no double blind test data produced in the book that proved that Spock was correct. We all know that many social programs fail to hold water when subjected to double blind testing. Head start is a good example. It did happen and many parents took the book like a new religion and raised their kids accordingly. I contend that 90% of our current social problems can be traced back to this one "event", the Spock book published in 1946. It has sold a record number of copies since 1946 and still has not been shown to be correct.
I like to tell stories to help carry my points and here is one. Recall the Johnny Cash song "A Boy Named Sue"? The song is about a poor family with a new son and the father wanted to provide for his new son in the best way that he could. I can relate to the kid, because my first name is a girl's name. The responsible father could not give his son money or an expensive private school education like Spock got so he named his son "Sue". He knew that kids would tease him and make him stand out. I do not know of a better example of "tough love" than this, because it hurt the father as much as it did the son. As the kid carried the name "Sue" it was like having to carry a heavy barbell. It made the kid stronger and gave him the strength as he grew to deal with a richer world. This song is not just a story, it is the way life works.
Look at our kids today? How well are our kids doing in school compared to the past or compared to the rest of the world? We rank last and the rest of the world knows it. SAT scores hit their peak in about 1965 and have been going down ever since. If you can do a little 4th grade math and see how old kids who were raised according to the Spock book, you would find that in 1965 they would be 19 years old. That is about the age kids start college and first take the SAT test. Interesting isn't it?
Before you accept the teachings in the social science area from some book, doesn't it seem reasonable to explore the back ground and agenda of the writer. In this case, it seems that a lot of people accepted the teachings with blind faith even though they had themselves been raised by the "spar the rod and spoil the child" rule. I know people to this day who are just as blind about the danger of the Spock book and continue follow the unproven and dangerous dogma in the book.
This blog is getting too long so I am going to put off for an other blog the damage that the book "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson did to our children and helped to put us in this mess.
PS-----------------
Of the 30 or so countries whose kids do better in school than ours and where they spend less money on education, do you think that they raised their kids according to Dr Spock? Spock was like AIDS. Once the disease starts, it is very difficult to stop the spread. If I were you, I would be even more concerned about people who go to Columbia and then try to tell the rest of us how to live. You know who I am talking about.
