The Watchtower – Nov 1 st 2006
The Rise and Fall of “Experts”
Type the words “parenting and “advice” into one popular search engine on the internet, and over 26 million reference instantly appear.
Only 14 and a half million with Google.
If you took only one minute to look up and read each one, your child would grow up and leave home before you could even finish.
They would do a lot more than that if there were over 26 million it would take over 50 years at a minute a page.
Before the days of pediatricians, child psychologists, and the Internet where did parents go for advice? Generally, they looked to their extended family. Mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles were ready and able to offer guidance, financial aid, and babysitting services.
If we're talking about advice and guidance why add the 'extra' benefits of financial aid and babysitting services? What about books? How many new parents want the Mother-in-law interfering?
But in many lands, a massive population shift from rural to city life has almost completely severed such close family ties.
Is family guidance not possible over long-distance? What about the telephone or even 'letter' writing, or even email?
This shift is not new, in 1920 more than half of Americans lived in cities.
All too often today, mothers and fathers find themselves handling the challenges of parenting alone.
Not true in the Western world the Nanny State is all too willing to keep a check on you. Health visitors, social workers etc.
This is undoubtedly one reason why the modern child-care industry has grown so rapidly.
Not the main reason though. Mothers feel the need to go out to work for financial or emotional reasons.
Another reason is a widespread faith in science By the late 1800's, the American public was already becoming convinced that science could improve every aspect of human life. Why not child rearing? So when the American National Congress of Mothers publicly bewailed “the incompetancy of parents” in 1899, a parade of “scientific experts” quickly appeared on the scene. They promised to help struggling mothers.
Why the “American” public? Were the rest of the world too backward scientifically?
Parenting by the Book
Yet, what have these experts accomplished? Are the parents of today less anxious and better equipped to raise their children than those of yesteryear? Not according to one recent poll in Britain. It revealed that about 35 percent of parents with young children are still searching for advice they can trust. Others feel that they have little choice but to follow their own instincts.
Regardless of recent surveys, by the 1920s, one mother was so overwhelmed with child-care instruction that she confessed, "I try to do just what you say, but I am a nervous wreck just trying to be calm."
Why quote a poll in Britain when previously we were shown that it was the 'American' public that was becoming convinced.
To quote another poll from Britain: On 8 September 2006, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Families and Social Capital Research Group at London South Bank University presented research findings at the Diverse Britain: Social Practice and Social Policy conference. The research found that in a survey of 1112 parents of 'middle aged' children, the majority did not feel that parents need professional advice and guidance to help them bring up their children.
In her book Raising America: Experts, Parents, and a Century of Advice About Children, Ann Hulbert traces the history of professional literature on child reading. Hulbert, herself a mother of two, points out that few of the experts' findings were based on well-grounded science. Rather, their advice appears to have been influenced more by their own life experience than by any objective data. In retrospect, it seems that much of what they wrote was faddish, contradictory, and sometimes downright bizarre.
In should state 'in her opinion' with regard to the experts' findings, I'm sure they believed that their findings were based on science. Being a mother of two does that make Hulbert an expert. What relevance is the fact that their advice appears to have been influenced by their life experience. Isn't that true of anyone that states an opinion. Every family has different ideas and ways of bringing up children which they feel are best. How many people have you heard say; “I want to give my children what I didn't have”.
So where does that leave parents today? Frankly, many are confused, confronted as they are with more advice, opinions, and controversies than ever before. However, not all parents feel that they are adrift. Parents the world over are benefiting from an ancient source of wisdom that is still proving to be a wellspring of reliable advice, as the following article will show.
Few Bible students would not recommend following the Bibles' advice on rearing children. However there are many in the congregation who would also agree that however you bring up your children their will always be those who don't agree with how you're doing it.