tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post8221482026684750258..comments2024-03-28T10:49:14.510-05:00Comments on Horizons: Does it really take a village?Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-12137143687742715442013-04-10T14:32:44.642-05:002013-04-10T14:32:44.642-05:00I grew up in small towns with an extended family. ...I grew up in small towns with an extended family. Who was sitting at the dinner table on any given night - or which table I was sitting at - varied considerably. I don't ever recall thinking that it was unusual that various people in the town would be looking out for me, or that my parents wouldn't be aware of any misbehavior. I might hope that no one would tell my parents, but I wasn't counting on it. Along with that was the idea that "big kids are supposed to look out for the little kids." From friends who grew up in cities, they had similar experiences, just on the neighborhood level. <br /><br />So the idea of "it takes a village" is not a new one, it used to be a common assumption. It's a shame that the right wing, which so often thinks of "the good old days" doesn't seem to grasp that concept at all. Norbrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11383422747683493947noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-26790666235955882322013-04-10T11:28:17.700-05:002013-04-10T11:28:17.700-05:00I had the good fortune to live in Senegal for 9 mo...I had the good fortune to live in Senegal for 9 months, and I saw there what it looks like when the community takes responsibility for its children. In general, Senegal is, or was when I was there, much safer than the US. There's crime, but very little violent crime. But what struck us was that everybody watched the children who were around them. In the neighborhood, children would just run around. In the US, we'd say they were "unsupervised," because their parents weren't actually gazing at them. But in reality, everyone was watching them, as if they were their own. On the bus, a woman with a baby would hand her child to a stranger as she prepared to sit down. The idea that someone would harm any of these children wasn't part of the picture. Nobody worried that some stranger would abscond with the child.<br /><br />I took from this a strong sense that the way we raise our kids in this country, in isolated nuclear families, means that to a very large extent we don't raise our kids. The job is too much for the parents themselves. But truly, we think, and our legal system confirms it, that children not biologically our own are not our responsibility, and not even our interest.<br /><br />I look back on my own childhood and I know that I overwhelmed my parents' ability to parent sometimes, and it hurt me as I grew up. I needed a community and I didn't have one.<br /><br />So, when I read about people going on about "collectivist" this and that, I remember Senegal and how, whatever problems there were there, children were actually raised.Billhttp://freeandeasywandering.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-14857483940664833952013-04-10T08:56:17.380-05:002013-04-10T08:56:17.380-05:00I shouldn't be so hard on Rush. He could have...I shouldn't be so hard on Rush. He could have a yet to be discovered scumbag gene. That means he can't help himself. And I take it that his listeners get weekly lobotomies. There's no way someone should have a problem with what Dr Harris-Perry said. Her commercial was innocuous. At this point we know they're upset about that soon to be gone in group status.<br /><br />Vic78Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com