Nurev at Kreative.net wrote:
> Ingrid Multhopp wrote:
> Joshua, please excuse me I'm grossly misinformed about child-rearing> programs> in early
> communistic Israeli Kibbutzim, but I was told that the early child-rearing> experiments
> were considered a failure because parents of either sex were> intentionally removed from
> the child-rearing of their own children, who were raised> communally by other adults--a
> kind of forced collectivization of child care.
>
> (Joshua2) This is true. But " forced collectivization " is too strong a phrase.
(Ingrid) Yes, I apologize for the hyperbole. The (mis)information I cited, BTW, came from a recent segment I heard on public radio (I'll try to get my hands on a transcript of it--I think I heard it on "The World"), which was pointedly about the "failed experiment" of perhaps a particular kibbutz and the emotional maladjustment problems faced by the adults who were raised with very little contact with their actual parents. Now I know that a lot of what I hear and read is crap, which I often swallow nonetheless. And my own personal strategy for sifting through the manure is to regurgitate it in front of those who I know have a more intimate and profound understanding of the issue and hearing the "real poop"--so to speak. (My apologies for the unappitizing metaphor.) And so I thank you for your first-hand clarification. My real point is contained below.
> (Ingrid) I really do> believe that if some of the economic and cultural onus were
> removed from paternal> child-rearing, this whole notion of a "maternal instinct"--as
> opposed to a simple> "parental instinct"--would disappear.
>
> (Joshua2) I doubt it, but why do you see that as being 'good'?
(Ingrid) Simply because I always thought that one of the points of being a "leftist" was to try to envision the ways we might be happier and prioritize our lives differently if we weren't so damn hamstrung by our present social and economic order. And this whole Men are from Mars: Women are from Venus, men are analytical/aggresive/abstract : women are linguistic/nurturing/relational, yadda, yadda, has always bored me to tears, and it just doesn't comport with reality as I experience it (or at least I think it's much more open to cultural attribution than it's generally credited).
> (Joshua2) Might I suggest a chat with amidwife about maternal instincts and their role
> in infant survial. What men dolater on is merely a variation on the theme.
>
> (Ingrid) Yeah, and all I'm saying is Viva la variation!
>
> Regards,
>
> Ingrid
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