I, Kid (part III)
- by Pixel
As I’ve found most people disagree with how I plan on raising my hypothetical children, I’ve decided to try one final argument. Hopefully I won’t need to dip my pen back into this ink bottle again. Personally, I’m sick of going over this again and again.
I am a vegetarian. If you cannot respect my personal choice of what to eat (without my pushing it on anyone), then we’re probably finished talking.
Frankly, what I eat has no bearing on who I am… well, in a physical sense yes, but in no other way… except for what it reveals of my own psyche.. well, whatever.
I am a vegetarian for moral reasons. That seems to be a meaningless qualifier to the prior position, but it’s important.
I have a hypothetical child who I can raise in any way I choose. This is the supposition needed. For we wouldn’t get into this problem but for this clause.
If you can respect my belief, surely you can respect my raising a child in my belief. It would be as illogical to ask me to raise my child a meat eater as it would be to ask an anti-Semite to raise a child Jewish.
Here we’re in new water. Some people might challenge this, saying that it would be wrong of me to raise a child in something I’m not certain of (or foolishly certain of). But I’m stuck in a dichotomy: either I raise my child vegetarian, or I don’t.
Either I raise him anti-Semitic, or I don’t.
Either I raise him speaking English, or I don’t.
Here, my uncle’s wise words come back to me: “Teach them what you know, let them figure out the rest.”
I could try to raise my children Jewish, speaking Arabic, and eating meat, but I would do it in such a terrible way that the child would be worse off than if I’d just gone ahead and ‘brainwashed’ him and raised him with the things I do know.
(note: I disagree with the term ‘brainwashing’ as it absolves a person of responsibility. Many people would consider my brother to be brainwashed, I’d consider him to be an idiot in need of thinking through his life decisions again)
The best thing I can do is teach my child to be autonomous— which is possible– and hope that he will realise his own personal correct course of action himself eventually.
As I have no choice but to raise him in my beliefs and teach him my way of thinking, the best course of action would be to do this until he can decide for himself. Similarly, a Christian’s best course of action would be to teach Christianity and assorted arguments for and against it, an anti-Semite’s best course of action would be to teach why or why not to hate Jewish people, and an English speaker’s best course of action would be to teach English and try to prod them along with other languages if possible.
When the child grows up or becomes rationally self-aware (I’m guessing age 10), he can make his own decision. I won’t stand in the way, so long as the decision is thought out and explained. For the time being, however, I have no choice but to raise him vegan and have him understand the reasons why.
(which was my original statement, damn it. I’d assumed people would know that this argument was behind it, but you know what they say about making assumptions… you make an ass out of ‘u’ and… um, ‘mptions.’ Damn.)
And now… attack my views at will. You know you want to.
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- I, Kid (part II) My uncle’s philosophy for raising a child (cleaned up): “Teach them what you know, let them figure out the rest.” The problem comes when people think that they know things that they in fact do...
- I, Kid (part IV) My ideal curriculum: Grade 1: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, simple division. English. Latin. Reading. Spelling. Art. P.E. Grade 2: Large scale addition, Subtraction with Borrowing, Multiplication, Long Division. Latin. English. Choice of Japanese or Chinese. Spelling,...
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As I’ve found most people disagree with how I plan on raising my hypothetical children, I’ve decided to try one final argument. Hopefully I won’t need to dip my pen back into this ink bottle again. Personally, I’m sick of going over this again and again. I am a vegetarian. If you cannot respect my…
Your uncle’s words are indeed wise…
It’s all about perspective and paradigm. I don’t think most people get that. They don’t want to see things a different way, and can’t accept that people even have a different way, let alone wish to raise children in that way.
What it comes down to, I think, is allowing the child to be open to everything else; not so much “tolerance” (I hate that word ‘cos it implies something or someone needs to be “tolerated”, in the sense that they are not normal, and we must humour them or something), but acceptance and acknowledgement of our differences as human beings.
If you wrote this post and explained that the reason you wanted to raise your hypothetical child a vegan is ‘cos your way is the right way, then I’d be concerned. But like your uncle says, you can only teach what you know, and since you grew up in a certain paradigm and developed a certain perspective, that’s all you can possibly pass on to your offspring.
In short, you are awesome, and I wish more people thought like you – actually put thought into things. Alas, people are stupid. What can you do… develop your own autonomously thinking child and hope for the best.