“The way a society functions is a reflection of the childrearing practices of that society. Today we reap what we have sown. Despite the well-documented critical nature of early life experiences, we dedicate few resources to this time of life. We do not educate our children about child development, parenting, or the impact of neglect and trauma on children.”
—Dr. Bruce D. Perry, Ph.D. & Dr. John Marcellus
“This is the most important job we have to do as humans and as citizens … If we offer classes in auto mechanics and civics, why not parenting? A lot of what happens to children that’s bad derives from ignorance … Parents go by folklore, or by what they’ve heard, or by their instincts, all of which can be very wrong.”
—Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
“It’s only after children have been discovered to be severely battered that their parents are forced to take a childrearing course as a condition of regaining custody. That’s much like requiring no license or driver’s ed[ucation] to drive a car, then waiting until drivers injure or kill someone before demanding that they learn how to drive.”
—Myriam Miedzian, Ph.D.
All Children Deserve Far Better Than What This World Frequently Throws At Them
To remember:
- The author of Childhood Disrupted says: “[Even] well-meaning and loving parents can unintentionally do harm to a child if they are not well informed about human development” (pg.24).
- stress over having their parents angry at them for prolonged periods of time
- the health of all children needs to be of real importance to everyone
- along with the K-12 Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity curriculum already taught (at least in Canadian public schools), cerebral diversity curriculum could also be implemented.
- ASD people, including higher functioning autistics, are often deemed willfully ‘difficult’ and socially incongruent > y feel compelled to “camouflage” or “mask => disproportionately high rate of suicide among ASD people
- a physically and mentally sound future should be every child’s fundamental right
From guestwriters 