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Subject: 
Re: PCisms (was :Re: Yet Another Episode 1 Question)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Sat, 15 Apr 2000 20:11:09 GMT
Viewed: 
467 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks writes:

Knowing how kids (adolescents, really) are, isn't raising kids in an
environment where racisim is embraced really the same as advocating the
initiation of force?  I think that parents who raise racist kids should expect
them to potentially act foolishly and violently based on their beliefs.  Even
if the parents would never dream of supporting such actions.

Wow, that's an interesting angle. I'm not sure I have any pat answer there.
What liability do parents have for their children's actions? After they are
adults, most would say not much. But while they are kids? I dunno.

There ARE bigger problems out there, but I'd just rather that my kids, for
example, never ever use the n word, and getting them to think about why that • is
involves having them think about why if the n word is wrong, other, milder
slurs are too.

Why is the 'n word' wrong?  Is it based on how it makes listeners feel?  Or on
how it makes the speaker seem?  Or is it based on what actions the use of such
a word implies support of?

All of the above, I'd say.

How do you discuss this with the kids?

Using questions similar to the questions you just outlined, more or less. I
tend to take a questioning approach with my kids (on really important stuff),
in which I ask what I think are thought provoking questions and ask them why
they feel that way and what it means to them and what if it were different,
etc.

This is not a good approach for acute behavioural issues, which get a "stop
that right now", but is good for long term values and ethics.

The world is going to hell in
a handbasket,

Yes it is. And we've already discussed how I feel about profanity as well.

Should I take this snippet to mean that the word hell is profanity?

Mild, extremely mild. But yes, there are three quite mild epithets in Tom's
post. Not too strong for here, but possibly too strong for elsewhere (I'd say
LUGNET is big enough that it has different defacto standards in different
places, would you agree?)

You're excited, so I won't sweat it. But is that how you want my kids to
perceive you?

They would see him - maybe for the first time - mildly freaking out.  And then
if they continued to read, they'd see him making contributions to the • community
and find how valuable he is to all of us.  So if they become members of the
community, they won't really hold it against him, and if they don't, then what
does their first impression matter?

Valid point. But first impressions do matter. It's taken me quite a while to
unlearn some I've made, and in some cases, I haven't.

my $.02,

I'll see your .02 and raise you .01 :-)

++Lar



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: PCisms (was :Re: Yet Another Episode 1 Question)
 
(...) expect (...) I want to point out that liability, in a legal sense, and responsibility in a pseudo-philosophical sense are different things. I agree that for practical reasons parents can't be held liable for actions of their adult children. On (...) (25 years ago, 15-Apr-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  PCisms (was :Re: Yet Another Episode 1 Question)
 
(...) For the record, I got a chuckle out of Tom's post. (...) Knowing how kids (adolescents, really) are, isn't raising kids in an environment where racisim is embraced really the same as advocating the initiation of force? I think that parents who (...) (25 years ago, 15-Apr-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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