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C. Sommerville Biography

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“If our entertainment culture seems debased and unsatisfying, the hope is that our children will create something of greater worth.But it is as if we expect them to create out of nothing, like God, for the encouragement of creativity is in the popular mind, opposed to instruction. There is little sense that creativity must grow out of tradition, even when it is critical of that tradition, and children are scarcely being given the materials on which their creativity could work”

IfsMindChildrenLittlesSeemsCultureGivenGrowsCreativityGreaterMaterialsTraditionEncouragementOur ChildrenEntertainmentCriticalInstruction
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“Without a sense of the shame or guilt of his or her action, the child will only be hardened in rebellion by physical punishment. Shame (and praise) help the child to internalize the parent's judgment. It impresses upon the child that the parent is not only more powerful but also right. Like the Puritans, Locke (in 1690), wanted the child to adopt the parent's moral position, rather than simply bow to superior strength or social pressure.”

ChildrenHelpingActionWantedSocialParentPowerfulMoralPositionJudgmentPressurePraiseShameGuiltPunishmentSuperiorsRebellionBowsImpressPuritanHardenedSocial Pressure
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“Ambivalence reaches the level of schizophrenia in our treatment of violence among the young. Parents do not encourage violence, but neither do they take up arms against the industries which encourage it. Parents hide their eyes from the books and comics, slasher films, videos and lyrics which form the texture of an adolescent culture. While all successful societies have inhibited instinct, ours encourages it. Or at least we profess ourselves powerless to interfere with it.”

BookEyeFilmFormYoungCultureParentLevelsSuccessfulViolenceArmsIndustryInstinctVideoTreatmentInterfereAdolescencePowerlessTextureSchizophreniaAmbivalenceYoung Parents
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“Quintilian [educational writer in Rome around A.D. 100] thought that the earliest years of the child's life were crucial. Education should start earlier than age seven, within the family. It should not be so hard as to give the child an aversion to learning. Rather, these early lessons would take the form of play--that embryonic notion of kindergarten.”

GivingShouldYearsChildrenHardPlayAgeFormChildhoodLessonsSevenNotionEducationalCrucialRomeAversionKindergartenEarly ChildhoodEarly Childhood Education
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“Parents are used to being made to feel guilty about...their contribution to the population problem, the school tax burden, and declining test scores. They expect to be blamed by teachers and psychologists, if not by police. And they will be blamed by the children themselves. It is hardy a wonder, then, that they withdraw into what used to be called "permissiveness" but is really neglect.”

IfsFeelsChildrenMadeProblemSchoolUsedParentWonderTeacherTaxesTestsPolicePopulationBurdenUsed To BeGuiltyContributionScoreNeglectPsychologistHardyTest ScoresTax BurdenPopulation Problem
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“In the years of the Roman Republic, before the Christian era, Roman education was meant to produce those character traits that would make the ideal family man. Children were taught primarily to be good to their families. To revere gods, one's parents, and the laws of the state were the primary lessons for Roman boys. Cicero described the goal of their child rearing as "self- control, combined with dutiful affection to parents, and kindliness to kindred.”

MenYearsChildrenSelfStatesCharacterChristianLawParentGoalBoysProduceTaughtLessonsIdealsAffectionBe GoodPrimariesErasRepublicTraitsSelf ControlKindredChild RearingFamily ManCharacter TraitKindliness
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“[17th-century] Puritans were the first modern parents. Like many of us, they looked on their treatment of children as a test of their own self-control. Their goal was not to simply to ensure the child's duty to the family, but to help him or her make personal, individual commitments. They were the first authors to state that children must obey God rather than parents, in case of a clear conflict.”

FirstsChildrenSelfStatesHelpingIndividualParentGoalCasesClearModernCenturyDutyConflictCommitmentTestsTreatmentSelf ControlPuritan17th Century
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