Oh, how we delude ourselves—blindspots!
“The one key failure we might make is not recognizing our potential blindness and as a result not continually seeking to ferret out our blindspots…”– Steven K. Graham From the archives: Posted...
View ArticleThe challenge of identifying blind spots
“Encourage all your friends and loved ones to seek out your… blind spots… Note that the benefits of success are most unlikely to be confined to one’s relationships with children.”– David Deutsch...
View ArticleHow defining yourself in terms of injustice sabotages your life
“When one is the victim of a great injustice, there is a tremendous temptation to define oneself, and one’s life, at least partly in terms of this injustice. This… ‘victim mentality’ is a terrible...
View ArticleNoticing I am pushing against a blind spot
“I have come to notice when I am unhappy for no apparent reason, that it is likely that I am pushing against a blind spot.”– Catherine G. From the archives: Posted on 10th March 1997 “Can...
View ArticleNo blind spots?
“If a person thinks they have no blind spots, then they have at least one.”– Mark Slagle From the archives: Posted on 12th March 1997 “Can anyone think of similar, concrete, approaches to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What if a child wants to buy something the parent is boycotting for moral...
“Your daughter is not an extension of you. You have no jurisdiction over her. What she does can’t be morally wrong for you.”– David Deutsch From the archives: The original post was posted on...
View ArticleKids Are Worth it, by Barbara Coloroso: a book review
“What Barbara Coloroso really means by ‘There is no problem so great it can’t be solved’ is that there is no disobedience/non-compliance that can’t be crushed using a double bind.”– Sarah...
View ArticleUnnatural consequences
“So-called ‘natural consequences’ are actually a strategy for denying responsibility for pain for which the parent is in fact responsible.”– Sarah Fitz-Claridge From the archives: First...
View ArticleSupporting a child’s choice to go to school
“[B]eing allowed to leave [or] make contact with parents… is … actually much more important than how coercive the regime itself is. For if the child has the right to complain to a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Taking Children Seriously helped me solve my housework-hating problem
“No creativity is needed in doing housework, so housework time is time spent indulging myself with thinking time.”– Sarah Fitz-Claridge From the archives: Posted on 24th May 1997 I used to have...
View ArticleUnhappy with natural consequences
“There is a solution that satisfies everyone. Creativity is required to find it. When the parents’ creativity is impaired, the child’s should easily take over—unless it is impaired by coercion—which...
View ArticleChildren who prefer to go to school
“One assumption which might be explored is the assumption that there are things all children must know. The assumption provides the justification for the provision of standard academic subjects and...
View ArticleWe lost our internet account
“Children’s behaviour is not random. It is meaningful. Therefore there was a reason for this incident.”– David Deutsch From the archives: The original post was posted on 11th July, 1997 “In a...
View ArticleAgainst replacing the ‘blind spot’ metaphor
“[U]nless a person identifies a problem, that person will not progress beyond the ‘blind spot’ area. They are not engaging in the process of creativity. I do not believe the ‘blind spot’ metaphor can...
View ArticleThe importance of video games
“Video games are not about any obvious direct product. Their value lies in how they affect one’s deepest, inexplicit ways of thinking, solving problems and interacting with the world. What video-game...
View Article(Not) doling out looks and latitude
“Whenever I try to stop being in charge of stuff, life with the kids gets easier and more rewarding.”– Robert Donjacour From the archives: Posted on Wed, 30 Jul., 1997 Hi—Welcome to the List. I...
View ArticleObjectifying education sabotages learning
“When parents objectify and focus on their children’s education as education, the children become conscious of their education as education too, thinking about their ‘education’ at the expense of...
View ArticleRequiring children to do chores
“[Y]ou believe that a parent’s financial support and other services for his children morally obliges the children to provide certain services in return. But there is no justification for that belief....
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Taking Children Seriously survey
“Most of us can see quite easily the irrationality of many other people’s justifications for coercing children. But it is in the nature of irrationality that we cannot see our own.”– David Deutsch...
View ArticleTaking Children Seriously and fallibilism
“Experiment could not refute the theory of Taking Children Seriously, but argument and criticism might. For instance, it might show that the theory contradicts some principles that we have independent...
View Article