Crumbley Verdict

Well said. ...

Too many people will procreate regardless of their inability to parent their children in a psychologically functional/healthy manner.

It's not that they necessarily are bad parents; rather, many seem to perceive thus treat human procreative ‘rights’ as though they [potential parents] will somehow, in blind anticipation, be innately inclined to sufficiently understand and appropriately nurture their children’s naturally developing minds and needs.

As liberal democracies, we cannot prevent anyone from bearing children, including the incompetent and reckless procreators. We can, however, educate all young people for the most important job ever, even those high-schoolers who plan to remain childless.

If nothing else, such child-development curriculum could offer students an idea/clue as to whether they’re emotionally suited for the immense responsibility and strains of parenthood. Given what is at stake, should they not at least be equipped with such valuable science-based knowledge?

Understanding the science behind every child’s healthy/functional development can at least enable a prospective parent to make an educated decision on how they wish to go about rearing any future children.

In the book Childhood Disrupted the author writes that even “well-meaning and loving parents can unintentionally do harm to a child if they are not well informed about human development” (pg.24).

A physically and mentally sound future should be every child’s fundamental right — along with air, water, food and shelter — especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter. Particularly one in which too often Mom and Dad divorce.

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“The way a society functions is a reflection of the childrearing practices of that society. Today we reap what we have sown. Despite the well-documented critical nature of early life experiences, we dedicate few resources to this time of life. We do not educate our children about child development, parenting, or the impact of neglect and trauma on children.”

— Dr. Bruce D. Perry, Ph.D. & Dr. John Marcellus

“It has been said that if child abuse and neglect were to disappear today, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual would shrink to the size of a pamphlet in two generations, and the prisons would empty. Or, as Bernie Siegel, MD, puts it, quite simply, after half a century of practicing medicine, ‘I have become convinced that our number-one public health problem is our childhood’.”

— Childhood Disrupted, pg.228