Faithful reader C.C. sends not one but two e-mails praising Theodore Dalrymple’s article in the New English Review (linked by The Other Charlotte on July 13) pointing out that it’s parents who are to to blame, not corporations, for the widespread phenomenon of childhood obesity–since most parents nowadays refuse to monitor what their kids eat, for fear of bruising the little darlings’ delicate psyches
Here’s e-mail No.1:
This excerpt from Dalrymples’s article is true and frightening: ‘…suggesting that millions of American parents are, at least in this respect, failing their own children (I suspect that they are failing them in other respects too). For many parents it does appear that they are making a broad abandonement of their responsibilities, allowing TV, movies, video clips, peers and other factors to replace them!! (I truly enjoy the IWF blog. Keep up the great work.)
And here’s e-mail No. 2:
Not asking parents to be responsible for what their children eat, also seems to me similar to not asking teachers to be responsible for what their students earn. Certainly teachers must cope ith external factors such as children’s abilities and attitudes, the effects of TV and other variables, but teachers still should have some major responsibility for what children learn (as parents should have some major responsibility for what they eat).
But when people complain about low results in education, they typically blame the ‘government,’ not the teachers (who have successfully removed themselves from responsibility). And as Dalrymple says, that is what one can only call a totalitarian mindset.
All so true. And I especially like the bit about enjoying the IWF blog.