Tag: Parenting

• March 25, 2013

  The worst sort of parents…

  Excluding monsters, the worst sort of parents are those who do not raise their children to be capable of being parents themselves. For Kant, the enlightened person is one who is no longer under the thumb of a ‘guardian’–in this case, a parent upon whom he is dependent–but has learned to think for himself and…
• February 8, 2012

  On French parenting brinkmanship

  Pamela Druckerman has written a short, must-read piece for the Wall Street Journal entitled “Why French Parents Are Superior.” (No, them’s not fighting words; them’s book promoting words.) Druckerman, an American ex-pat living in Paris, has spent the last couple years comparing French parenting styles with American styles. Her investigation has led her to draw some important…
• January 30, 2012

  Meow

  The following is an excerpt from an email exchange that took place between one conversation partner–I guess I’ve renamed her “S.”–and me from this past weekend. I pick up the thread about education in Tuesday’s post. Till then, A. — Dear S., There’s a rock on my desk. (A fine opening line!). It’s black. Away…
• November 23, 2011

  On murmuring, education, and love

  The Ancients Versus the Moderns The question we ask of power has changed tremendously. For the ancients, the principal question was, “Who rules? Who is fit to rule? What makes someone a wise ruler?” Their assumption was that the wise ruler would (or could) do no harm. You can see in Plato’s fantasy of a…