Are We Really Such Monsters?
Everything today is "child abuse."
by Lakis Polycarpou
August 18, 2008
In a recent letter to Salon.com's advice columnist Cary Tennis, a reader wrote of a dilemma: he was considering ending a friendship with someone who began teaching creationism at a parochial school — something the reader and his wife considered "a form of child abuse."
As the father of three young children and as someone raised in a religious (though by no means fundamentalist) family, I find it strange that teaching children a controversial religious doctrine could be called "abuse." But judging from any number of recent news stories, blog posts and online message board discussions, this letter is only one example of a recent trend of using the term "child abuse" to castigate almost any parenting decision one disagrees with.
On a recent Yahoo Answers discussion board, parents argued over whether breastfeeding a child too long constitutes abuse, while one poster responded that giving a child formula is abuse. A few years ago in British Columbia, a local politician ignited controversy when he suggested that homeschooling was child abuse. Meanwhile, on the right wing Free Republic blog, any number of threads argue that public school is a form of child abuse. Parents argued that breastfeeding a child too long constitutes abuse, while one said giving a child formula is abuse.And on the "Schools Matter" blog, Jim Horn, a professor of education at Monmouth University, argues in a post titled "Refusing the Child Abuse of High Stakes Testing" that the testing regime in public schools has become abusive and compares compliant parents and educators with Nazis who said they were just following orders at the Nuremberg trials.
"Child abuse." Not misguided, mistaken, or incorrect. Not insensitive, unfair, narcissistic or incompetent. Abusive.
©2008 Lakis Polycarpou and Nerve Media
About the Author
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Lakis Polycarpou is a freelance writer, husband, and father of three. He has written for The Washington Post, The Believer and Next American City, among other publications. He also blogs regularly about energy and urban planning at City of the Future. Lakis lives in Washington Heights, New York City. |
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