Philosophy
Another race question. International adoption is a wonderful thing allowing children to find adoptive parents who love them, who deeply want children, and who live in sufficient affluence to give children who might not have such opportunities in the lands of their birth a chance to find their own dreams. It is becoming not uncommon because of this to see children and parents of noticeably different ethnic backgrounds. My children have several friends who look nothing like their parents and think of the parents, simply as their friends' parents. Heritable properties and family resemblances will not be part of their lived sense of family.
Will this result in a separation between race and culture? We had a candidate a couple weeks ago who argued that Latino identity was a result of culturally constructed, but lived community experience. In the case of international adoption, the lived experience may have nothing to do with the culture of the birth parents. Is there a loss if the culture of your birth is not a part of your life, but the culture of your raising is? If a Jewish adoptive father and English adoptive mother together raise a Salvadorean child, does it even make sense to ask whether she is Salvadorean or Latina? Is it how she is treated in the culture or in the community? If it is in the wider culture, will the prevalence of international adoption change how we treat people who aren't white?
- Is Compulsory Education Granting Or Limiting Autonomy?
It's Einstein's birthday today, a good time to think about one of the Einstein quotations you will find on bumper stickers -- "Imagination is more important than knowledge." We have a senior major considering the argument that children have a...
- Feminist Family Values
It is nothing short of despicable to hide bigotry behind the fig leaf of the language of morality. "Feminism is destroying the family." "We oppose gay adoption because we care about children." The worst part of it is that the stance has been universally...
- What Will We Teach The Children?: Raising Kids With (or Without) Religion
In a previous post, I promised to address the issue of how to raise children with respect to religion. I now make good on that promise. The general principle I will be defending in this post is this: Children should be raised such that they are put...
- Questions No One Knows The Answers To
Many parents tend to grow increasingly frustrated when their children suddenly become question shotguns, going from one question to another, faster than the parents can dish out answers. Comedian Louis C K can at least turn these episodes...
- Vaccinations And Loss Of A Personal Decision
Aren't these vaccinations given based on statistical data and that which does the most good...and it doesn't matter what the parental concerns are and the fact that some do die. "Most U.S. kids get vaccines, but parents still worry" by Julie...
Philosophy
International Adoption and Racial Attitudes
Another race question. International adoption is a wonderful thing allowing children to find adoptive parents who love them, who deeply want children, and who live in sufficient affluence to give children who might not have such opportunities in the lands of their birth a chance to find their own dreams. It is becoming not uncommon because of this to see children and parents of noticeably different ethnic backgrounds. My children have several friends who look nothing like their parents and think of the parents, simply as their friends' parents. Heritable properties and family resemblances will not be part of their lived sense of family.
Will this result in a separation between race and culture? We had a candidate a couple weeks ago who argued that Latino identity was a result of culturally constructed, but lived community experience. In the case of international adoption, the lived experience may have nothing to do with the culture of the birth parents. Is there a loss if the culture of your birth is not a part of your life, but the culture of your raising is? If a Jewish adoptive father and English adoptive mother together raise a Salvadorean child, does it even make sense to ask whether she is Salvadorean or Latina? Is it how she is treated in the culture or in the community? If it is in the wider culture, will the prevalence of international adoption change how we treat people who aren't white?
- Is Compulsory Education Granting Or Limiting Autonomy?
It's Einstein's birthday today, a good time to think about one of the Einstein quotations you will find on bumper stickers -- "Imagination is more important than knowledge." We have a senior major considering the argument that children have a...
- Feminist Family Values
It is nothing short of despicable to hide bigotry behind the fig leaf of the language of morality. "Feminism is destroying the family." "We oppose gay adoption because we care about children." The worst part of it is that the stance has been universally...
- What Will We Teach The Children?: Raising Kids With (or Without) Religion
In a previous post, I promised to address the issue of how to raise children with respect to religion. I now make good on that promise. The general principle I will be defending in this post is this: Children should be raised such that they are put...
- Questions No One Knows The Answers To
Many parents tend to grow increasingly frustrated when their children suddenly become question shotguns, going from one question to another, faster than the parents can dish out answers. Comedian Louis C K can at least turn these episodes...
- Vaccinations And Loss Of A Personal Decision
Aren't these vaccinations given based on statistical data and that which does the most good...and it doesn't matter what the parental concerns are and the fact that some do die. "Most U.S. kids get vaccines, but parents still worry" by Julie...