Our parents are put here to teach us; agreeing with the wisdom they impart does not make a child a parrot.
And what is wrong with an emotional appeal? Emotions cannot always be trusted, but neither should they be ignored. We have emotions for a reason.
I spent years as a wishy-washy "pro-choice" advocate; this little boy's opinions make more sense than anything I ever read from Peter Singer et. al.
And, Loki, to answer your initial question, my best guess would be that you doubt the boy's views because you want to doubt them.
I used to teach kindergarten in a very low income district. Most of the children were in one parent homes and quite a few had very little parental care. The children were naturally pro-life. The knew people had babies and became attached. This happened even when teachers didn't talk about the babes they were carrying. Children need to be taught that abortion is okay – they are born with enough self-preservation to be pro-life.
Barefoot Momma,
I never thought of it that way. Great point. When I first told my oldest child who ws nine about abortion she was shocked. I'd never said a word about it but she was horrified by the thought of it.
"'You're basically what you destroyed' Wut."
Well, grown humans were once fetuses; abortion destroys a fetus! I know it takes a lot of reasoning to realize that…
As teacher in a poor, rural, 85% minority school, I want to support Barefoot Mama.
Teenage pregnancy is common enough that no one is shocked to hear that his classmate is pregnant.
Nevertheless, when we have discussions in class about abortion (I teach American History), overwhelmingly the students respond united in a pro-life, anti-abortion sentiment.
Sure, there are students who support the right to an abortion. But, even most of those know that a baby is being killed.
The natural instinct is pro-life. Students learn to be anti-life.
I was twelve years old when my father defined abortion to me — without trying to persuade me one way or another. He just gave me the bare facts in an age-appropriate way. I remember where I was sitting, where he was sitting and how deeply shocked I felt that this ever happened in the world. I knew instinctively how wrong it was. And, when I burst out with I cannot remember exactly what conveying how wrong I thought that was, my father smiled just slightly knowing he didn't have to tell me what to think about it — that the truth was obviously plain to a child.
Thanks Matthew. Olqas, I'm glad you found that instinct to still be present among teens 🙂
Suzanne, my oldest had your reaction. Someone else introduced the topic when she was about 9. When she asked me to clarify, she burst out "And the police let that happen?" I wanted to cry, knowing that she lost a certain sense of the world being just with general society protecting people.
This child has only heard one side of the arguments and he is making a fallacious emotional appeal. A fertilized egg that doesn't make it to term is not sad about not existing. There are a 12 billion eggs that could potentially be fertilized each year. It is silly to argue about what they could have been.
September 11, 2010 at 1:24 am
Amazingly insightful young man. Would that there were more adults who felt the same. Thanks for this post.
September 11, 2010 at 10:09 am
Why do I doubt he came to these views from an unbiased, analytical evaluation of the evidence? (Oh yeah, parents.)
"You're basically what you destroyed" Wut.
Emotional appeals galore, I'm not seeing the logic here. Except for the teddy bear, that part makes so much sense.
September 11, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Loki:
Our parents are put here to teach us; agreeing with the wisdom they impart does not make a child a parrot.
And what is wrong with an emotional appeal? Emotions cannot always be trusted, but neither should they be ignored. We have emotions for a reason.
I spent years as a wishy-washy "pro-choice" advocate; this little boy's opinions make more sense than anything I ever read from Peter Singer et. al.
And, Loki, to answer your initial question, my best guess would be that you doubt the boy's views because you want to doubt them.
September 11, 2010 at 3:00 pm
I used to teach kindergarten in a very low income district. Most of the children were in one parent homes and quite a few had very little parental care. The children were naturally pro-life. The knew people had babies and became attached. This happened even when teachers didn't talk about the babes they were carrying. Children need to be taught that abortion is okay – they are born with enough self-preservation to be pro-life.
September 11, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Barefoot Momma,
I never thought of it that way. Great point. When I first told my oldest child who ws nine about abortion she was shocked. I'd never said a word about it but she was horrified by the thought of it.
September 11, 2010 at 3:18 pm
"You're basically what you destroyed" Wut.
None of us came into this life without being a zygote first.
September 11, 2010 at 5:48 pm
"'You're basically what you destroyed' Wut."
Well, grown humans were once fetuses; abortion destroys a fetus! I know it takes a lot of reasoning to realize that…
September 11, 2010 at 7:24 pm
As teacher in a poor, rural, 85% minority school, I want to support Barefoot Mama.
Teenage pregnancy is common enough that no one is shocked to hear that his classmate is pregnant.
Nevertheless, when we have discussions in class about abortion (I teach American History), overwhelmingly the students respond united in a pro-life, anti-abortion sentiment.
Sure, there are students who support the right to an abortion. But, even most of those know that a baby is being killed.
The natural instinct is pro-life. Students learn to be anti-life.
September 11, 2010 at 8:23 pm
I was twelve years old when my father defined abortion to me — without trying to persuade me one way or another. He just gave me the bare facts in an age-appropriate way. I remember where I was sitting, where he was sitting and how deeply shocked I felt that this ever happened in the world. I knew instinctively how wrong it was. And, when I burst out with I cannot remember exactly what conveying how wrong I thought that was, my father smiled just slightly knowing he didn't have to tell me what to think about it — that the truth was obviously plain to a child.
September 11, 2010 at 11:14 pm
Thanks Matthew. Olqas, I'm glad you found that instinct to still be present among teens 🙂
Suzanne, my oldest had your reaction. Someone else introduced the topic when she was about 9. When she asked me to clarify, she burst out "And the police let that happen?" I wanted to cry, knowing that she lost a certain sense of the world being just with general society protecting people.
September 13, 2010 at 5:20 am
This child has only heard one side of the arguments and he is making a fallacious emotional appeal. A fertilized egg that doesn't make it to term is not sad about not existing. There are a 12 billion eggs that could potentially be fertilized each year. It is silly to argue about what they could have been.
September 14, 2010 at 2:31 am
The fact that the adults were laughing as the boy spoke suggests strongly they didn't expect to hear what he was expressing.
Kudos to the boy and to all children who know instinctively what's right and what's wrong.