Forgive the vaguely amusing title, but perhaps it is necessary to counter the level of enmity and ire this issue seems to attract. It seems at a glance to be such a personal, small, mind your own business kind of thing and yet if there is one thing that is virtually guaranteed to divide any … Continued
Okay, it’s official. Science has done it. They have the tools and they can build one. The future of tomorrow is here today. They have finally deciphered the arcane impulses that govern our children and unveiled the alchemical process that will unerringly result in the rearing of a perfect child. If that whiffs of nonsense, … Continued
I would like to start this blog on a slight tangent… Take a look at the picture below. I’m sure many of you are already familiar with this wretched story. To those of you who are not it revolves around a 12-year-old girl and her father, a gun toting, NRA loving, … Continued
Watching my kids this Easter weekend made me think about the bonds siblings share (thankfully they play well). Such connections are among the most profound we can have with another human being. These bonds should be nurtured,but they should also be respected for they may be driven by the desire to tear down as much … Continued
I came across an interesting book this week, The Danish way of Parenting. It is co-authored by an American author and a Danish narrative therapist. They also have a blog for it, thedanishway.com. Now, the reason I stopped to have a read was largely due to the word Danish in the title. I held this … Continued
I was thinking the other day about how we place a value on things. Consider a human being. There are various interesting thought experiments about the human body. In one intricate example,(which can be read here) ,we are asked to consider what the intrinsic value of a human body is. They suggest selling it for … Continued
It seems incredible to think that in one part of the United Kingdom the life of its citizens can be so different from the rest. I refer of course to Northern Ireland. It may come as surprise to you that our legal systems are not entirely uniform. One striking point of divergence is the law … Continued
I had intended to write an article about the problem with permissive parenting in the context of current trends in Sweden, but I realized, after reading a particularly smug article in the Telegraph that what was being said was equally applicable to this country. There seems to be a general drift happening in Europe towards … Continued
There has been a serious issue highlighted recently by Tristram Hunt, the shadow education secretary, regarding children of primary school age with profound language deficits. Typically a child of four or five will have a vocabulary of approximately 1500 to 2000 words. Some children are arriving at their first school with as little as 30-50 … Continued