Plato famously wanted to abolish the family and put children into care of the state. Some still think the traditional family has a lot to answer for, but some plausible arguments remain in favour of it. Joe Gelonesi meets a philosopher with a rescue plan very much in tune with the times.
Who really cares what ABC thinks?
It’s insanity that this question is even asked.
If you're gonna go all dictator over this shouldn't the prudent response be to make bed time stories mandatory? This would solves the problem in a much more productive fashion. Damn, libs can get anything right.
I am Guilty! I read ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ as well as Dennis McKiernan’s ‘The Iron Tower’ among others as they grew up.
So now you can’t give your kids “advantages” even if you are willing and able to? Sounds like we’re on the road to Harrison Bergeron with loud alarms going off every couple of minutes at bedtime to prevent parents from reading to the kids.
Oh Moses smell the roses. Not to be mean, but I do care more about my kids than others and want them to have every advantage that they can get in life. If you want your kids to have the same then read to them and do all the other things parents can do to nurture excellence.
Liberalism cannot coexist with sane and civilized society. We really need to split as a people. Us, the Aussies, Japan, some of Europe. Divide the land willingly now or fight later.
Parents should be VERY aware of the benefits of reading to their children, and do it at every opportunity.
And the morons who want to narrow the gap between the abilities of the underclass and the middle class, by crippling the abilities of middle-class kids, should be taken out back and whipped.
Ignorance *progressing* toward supreme ignorance.
Sometimes liberals are beyond parody.
Once again, in the interests of “leveling the playing field” the Libs resort to the lowest common denominator – don’t encourage reading to all children at an early age, but suppress those who take the initiative to better the lives of their kids. Why not just let them veg in a corner without ANY stimulation, that’ll work ...
Whatever happened to “Reading Is Fundamental” ??
Only liberals, the same kind of people that whine about keeping score in childrens sports....................until their kid is winning. Sixteen years after my daughter stopped playing, my 7 year old grandson is playing and the whining from liberals over scorekeeping is unbelievable! And damn us for taking advantage, both my daughter and we read to and with him not just at bedtime but all the time, life is a competition and you have to win to live.
Seriously?!?!!
My DIL grew up in a non-English speaking, broken home.. Her mother was either working or partying. She saw her dad 2 weeks every summer. Oh yeah, her mother is illiterate. Little to no guidance, children raising children.
When she was in college the professor did a little exercise to prove her point that those who would make the best COTAs had this certain kind of raising. They stood in the middle of the room with their eyes closed and the prof said things like “You were read to as a child.”. If yes step forward, no, step backward. Mostly just things that we take for granted. My DIL ended up with her back against the wall while almost all her classmates were at the front.
OMG, she cried so hard when she told me about it. But that’s okay, she is a wonderful OT and she has done everything she could to give her all the advantages that she missed.
She now works in the school system and helps teach parents what they can do with their children to help them to excel.
Why would anyone deny their own child anything because another child doesn’t have it, I don’t know, that’s just insanity. Oh yeah, there are hungry children in Africa so I’m not going to feed my children well either.
The book "How to Teach Your Child to Read in 50 Easy Lessons" was brilliant. We never got through all 50 lessons, because a month later he was reading on his own.
He was 3 years old.
I read to my kids at bedtime until they learned to read. Then I had them read to me.
Now whenever any of our grandkids spend the night I read to them. A good book is much better than technology any day!
So because some individuals are too stupid or stoned to read to their kids, the normal people are criticized for doing it?
Typical leftist way of looking at things. The people who better themselves by effort are the ones they hate.