On the other hand, Dr. Benjamin Spock published The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care in 1946 which argued a more gentle and affectionate approach to bringing up children.
Who do you agree with more on the method of child rearing? Dr. Benjamin Spock or David Shenk? Why did you choose who you did and not the other? How do you believe the differences in child rearing affect a child's success or lack of success? Do you feel one child rearing approach produces smarter and more confident children and adults?
-Sachin Vasikaran (sachinvasikaran@gmail.com)
I do not believe that Spock's and Shenk's ideas on child rearing are completely exclusive. Shenk never said that love and affection should not be utilized by parents, only that it should not be given or taken away on the basis of a child's achievements. Spock mainly said that children should be treated as individuals and should be treated affectionately. He countered ideas at the time that affection would hinder later development of strength and individuality. Thus neither ideology necessarily counters the other.
ReplyDeleteIOn this context, I agree more with Shenk, not because Spock is wrong, but because he did not include any specific examples or concessions to the utilization of affection as an emotional learning tool while Shenk describes specifically in what way affection improves the life of an infant/child.
I agree with Shenk that control over a child's life by the parents breeds emotional instability, especially when this control is sparked by the withdrawal of parental affection for actions of the child that are unwanted. I think it is a much better approach to always support the child emotionally no matter if their actions result in 'success' or 'failure.'
Some may argue that this makes the child think that failures are acceptable, prompting a lack of achievement and success later on in life. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing. We should accept failures as, not only inevitable, but also as learning experiences, probably even more valuable to development than success. Because of this, it is all the more important that parents make it clear that it is natural and important to fail so that children may grow up emotionally stable and proceed to fail and develop and eventually succeed in life.
Emily Reinherz...ereinherz@aol.com
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ReplyDeleteI would definitely agree with Dr.Benjamin Spock who published The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. In regards to Diana Baumrind’s study, she has come up with 4 types of parenting: Authoritarian, Authoritative, Permissive, and Neglecting/Rejecting. Authoritarian would be when the parents impose many rules, expect obedience, children have little control over decisions, and parents are cold and unresponsive, with this parenting the children will be obedient, but unhappy with low self-confidence and may become rebellious. Authoritative would be parents that are demanding and responsive, enforce rules, but also explain them this would result in children that are motivated and self-confident. The other two types of permissive behavior and neglecting behavior would be when parents are ignoring your or just let their children do whatever they want and here you would be getting children that feel unloved, and may engage in problem behavior. Therefore, parents should be Authoritative parents that are overall more gentle and affectionate in approaching children and bringing them up that gives the best outcome of children in the future.
DeleteI definitely believe Shenk’s part of how faith in the child's ability to seek achievement for his or her own inner satisfaction" (139), but there should not be detachment to some extent so that the child can grow to their full emotional potential. Actually, both should be correct, as the child grows older the attachment of parent and child should be strong but the involvement of the parent’s should decrease only in potential of the child, but parent must usually be aware of what is going on in the child’s life.
Defiantly, children will look up to their parents as a child and try to be like them and copy them. There is a strong attachment of baby to family in majority of households. I do believe that child rearing approach produces smarter and more confident children.
Sruthi (gangasruthi@gmail.com)