Section One
Children, Parents, and Family Matters
I’m a dinosaur of sorts, I guess, because I still believe deeply that the family is the bedrock of the development of human beings. Yet I’m stunned by the way modern family ideology and practice have desperately isolated individual families from the wider resources found in healthy community.
I once watched a presidential nominee make a fist and say out loud, with just the right combination of indignation, passion and scolding, “It doesn’t take a village to raise a child! It takes a family!”
You would think it was the Second Coming. You would think Paris Hilton just successfully filled out a job application at Wal-Mart. Hosanna heysanna ho. The audience gave the nominee a two-minute standing ovation.
The nominee was referring, of course, to the now-famous African parable: It takes a village to raise a child. The nominee disagreed, and his fans were relieved and delighted that someone finally had the courage to put this misguided, cross-continental colloquialism in its place.
“Wow,” I think. It doesn’t take a village. It takes a family. I wonder where your family lives, Mr. Nominee.
Mine lives in a village.