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jducoeurSo there I was, a few days ago, driving around Cambridge, when I passed a sight that has stayed uncomfortably with me. It was a neat line of small children on the sidewalk, each maybe four years old. (I'm bad with ages: small, but big enough to be walking down the sidewalk escorted.) The line was neat because they were attached to a pair of ropes -- each child's wrist was tied into the rope, and each rope had an adult at the front and back, with about six kids between them.
My inner engineer marveled at the simple efficiency of this solution for keeping a dozen children safe while walking down a busy city sidewalk. But my inner sociologist squirmed uncomfortably.
Mind, the kids didn't seem to mind: their eyes were wandering hither and yon as they walked, largely ignoring their right hand held up slightly by the rope. But that's kind of the point -- children at that age learn from everything happening to them. So I have to wonder: what does this teach?
I confess, I find it creepy as all hell. The implicit message seems to be that captivity is right and appropriate, so long as it is intended to keep you safe. I suspect that most people would word that differently, but many would agree with it in spirit. It makes my skin crawl.
To understand a person, it's often best to understand their formative literature. If you want to understand me, I commend the novelette With Folded Hands, by Jack Williamson. (The basis for the followup novel The Humanoids.) It's fairly old (I confess, I last read it decades ago), but perhaps even more than 1984 it shaped much of my political philosophy. If the above scene does *not* make you squirm, the story might help you understand why it does me...
My inner engineer marveled at the simple efficiency of this solution for keeping a dozen children safe while walking down a busy city sidewalk. But my inner sociologist squirmed uncomfortably.
Mind, the kids didn't seem to mind: their eyes were wandering hither and yon as they walked, largely ignoring their right hand held up slightly by the rope. But that's kind of the point -- children at that age learn from everything happening to them. So I have to wonder: what does this teach?
I confess, I find it creepy as all hell. The implicit message seems to be that captivity is right and appropriate, so long as it is intended to keep you safe. I suspect that most people would word that differently, but many would agree with it in spirit. It makes my skin crawl.
To understand a person, it's often best to understand their formative literature. If you want to understand me, I commend the novelette With Folded Hands, by Jack Williamson. (The basis for the followup novel The Humanoids.) It's fairly old (I confess, I last read it decades ago), but perhaps even more than 1984 it shaped much of my political philosophy. If the above scene does *not* make you squirm, the story might help you understand why it does me...
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Date: 2012-08-22 03:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-22 05:27 pm (UTC)Apples, meet oranges?
Date: 2012-08-22 10:38 pm (UTC)Here the children have no ability to consent, and the adult is making all the decisions. This teaches lessons that you may not want to teach young children about personal responsibility and looking out for yourself and each other.
Re: Apples, meet oranges?
Date: 2012-08-23 10:55 am (UTC)Yes, well, such is the nature of our institutional-based approach to managing children from daycare through...well, even college, in many cases. I agree with you and Justin. The institutional model is not one I feel is ideal for kids, my kids, any kids.
I understand why it makes sense from an urban daycare safety perspective. If I were a city daycare provider, I imagine myself likely employing that tool -- otherwise we'd sacrifice going for walks for fear of safety issues. But that misses the point. The point is that this is an institutional model of dominance and submission, and the kids in this environment are trained not to question that dynamic, and some of them (perhaps most of them) will grow up to be adults who will not question that dynamic in the institutions they encounter beyond daycare/school.
At this point, I am not sure we can change the institutional nature of our culture, of which daycare is a prime example, but we can lament it and remember that there are other, perhaps individually healthier ways of solving the issue of "what to do with the children."
Re: Apples, meet oranges?
Date: 2012-09-07 06:50 pm (UTC)