But who decides what are ‘pedagogically approved methods’? Keeping an approval body independent of government would be nigh-impossible, and even in well-intentioned groups the best ideas of how to care for a child change.
After all, it wasn’t so long ago that ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ was thought to be the best method; in many places, it still is. In Nazi Germany the approved method was to ignore your baby. Let them cry, force them into a schedule, deny them human contact (holding and cuddling were very frowned upon).
Mothers eager to do their best for their country followed those rules to a T, believing their government that claimed it was for the best. And the disastrous results are still being felt almost a century later.
What we need really is to all be taught critical thinking skills (hmm, denying contact to the child of a social species might be a bad idea hmmm…) and how to apply them across all parts of life, I think.
But who decides what are ‘pedagogically approved methods’? Keeping an approval body independent of government would be nigh-impossible, and even in well-intentioned groups the best ideas of how to care for a child change.
After all, it wasn’t so long ago that ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ was thought to be the best method; in many places, it still is. In Nazi Germany the approved method was to ignore your baby. Let them cry, force them into a schedule, deny them human contact (holding and cuddling were very frowned upon).
Mothers eager to do their best for their country followed those rules to a T, believing their government that claimed it was for the best. And the disastrous results are still being felt almost a century later.
What we need really is to all be taught critical thinking skills (hmm, denying contact to the child of a social species might be a bad idea hmmm…) and how to apply them across all parts of life, I think.