In the years of the Roman Republic, before the Christian era, Roman education was meant to produce those character traits that would make the ideal family man. Children were taught primarily to be good to their families. To revere gods,… — C. Sommerville Copy Share
Without a sense of the shame or guilt of his or her action, the child will only be hardened in rebellion by physical punishment. Shame (and praise) help the child to internalize the parent's judgment. It impresses upon the child that the parent is not only more powerful but also right. Like the Puritans, Locke (in 1690), wanted the child… — C. Sommerville Copy Share
Ambivalence reaches the level of schizophrenia in our treatment of violence among the young. Parents do not encourage violence, but neither do they take up arms against the industries which encourage it. Parents hide their eyes from the books and comics, slasher films, videos and lyrics which form the texture of an adolescent culture. While all successful societies have inhibited… — C. Sommerville Copy Share
In the years of the Roman Republic, before the Christian era, Roman education was meant to produce those character traits that would make the ideal family man. Children were taught primarily to be good to their families. To revere gods, one's parents, and the laws of the state were the primary lessons for Roman boys. Cicero described the goal of… — C. Sommerville Copy Share
Quintilian [educational writer in Rome around A.D. 100] thought that the earliest years of the child's life were crucial. Education should start earlier than… — C. Sommerville Copy Share Image
The person who designed a robot that could act and think as well as your four-year-old would deserve a Nobel Prize. But there is… — C. Sommerville Copy Share Image
If our entertainment culture seems debased and unsatisfying, the hope is that our children will create something of greater worth.But it is as if… — C. Sommerville Copy Share Image
[17th-century] Puritans were the first modern parents. Like many of us, they looked on their treatment of children as a test of their own… — C. Sommerville Copy Share Image
Could it be that those who were reared in the postwar years really were spoiled, as we used to hear? Did a child-centered generation,… — C. Sommerville Copy Share Image
Children became an obsessive theme in Victorian culture at the same time that they were being exploited as never before. As the horrors of… — C. Sommerville Copy Share Image
We like the idea of childhood but are not always crazy about the kids we know. We like it, that is, when we are… — C. Sommerville Copy Share Image
Parents are used to being made to feel guilty about...their contribution to the population problem, the school tax burden, and declining test scores. They… — C. Sommerville Copy Share Image