Their Name is Today by Johann Christoph Arnold
Hi! So… I haven’t been avoiding you, and I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, either. I’ve just been busy pretending I have a life that doesn’t involve knitting socks (much), and therefore I’ve not had much time to read. I have been slowly wading my way through one book about the history of mapmaking, but I had to take a break from it to read this other book as part of my continuing ed for work.
Well, I guess I didn’t *have* to, but they are offering ice cream at the book discussion.
And let me just say that it had better be some DAMN GOOD ICE CREAM.
The book is by Johann Christoph Arnold, and it is. Well. It is.
As you can imagine this is a book about children, or rather, about caring for the precious little angels that God sent to you to remind you of all the joy that exists in life. But not in so many words, because this book pretends to reach all audiences. It even references Muslim families and their childcare practices! You can’t get much more open-minded than that in this day and age.
Now, it’s not all bad. The book talks about how we should limit screen time of small children, and that we should seek to spend more time with them as parents and as teachers, and it spends an acceptable amount of time bitching about how the government and Testing is all up in our schools ruining everything. And I’m for all of those. To an extent.
What I’m not for is blaming video games for all violence and school shootings, which this book totally and flat-out does. I’m also completely opposed to people who state that children are the worst affected by a divorce, and so parents should stay together “for the children” if nothing else (which studies and common sense both have proven untrue).
It talked about the effects The Media has on children, but didn’t really come off too strongly in support of non-traditional gender roles. Actually, it was almost obsessively in favor of a stay-at-home parent. Of a wedded two-family home. Which presumably consists of a hetero-normal couple.
I mean, the book told us, it’s okay for a parent to divorce, and maybe that kid will even turn out okay, but it really is better for them–for the CHILD to stay together. Please, think of the child. When you promise forever with your wedding vows, you make that promise to your children (who were preferably not around at the event?), and so divorcing your (abusive? assholish? deadbeat?) husband (wife?) means breaking that promise; and if you want your children to grow up to be strong and faithful, than YOU need to be strong and faithful.
You fucking hussy. Your kid learns to dress like a slut from you, by the way.
Well, from the way you dress and the fact that you don’t discipline them enough. Or play with them at all. You should have your nose all up in their pie. But don’t smother them.
Smothering means they never figure out how to fail, and then they crash and burn at getting their first C+. Become suicidal, and turn to video games. Next thing you know your kid will be a school shooter!
All of this chock-full of personal anecdotes from his life of being one of eight children, and/or being a parent of …I don’t know, probably eight more, heart-wrenching quotes from his grandfather, and other stories drawn from people “of all walks of life.” Which I put in quotes, because those quotes were all pretty cherry-picked to support his view of things.
I could go on. In fact, I think I will go on. The book talked about how the child-parent bond is a magical, mystical thing that can overcome any and all adversity, without really acknowledging that it’s just another fucking relationship, and the only thing mystical about it is that society won’t let us let it go, even when it’s toxic to us emotionally. Yeah, it can be great, but it has to have a great person on either end of it, just like any great friendship or relationship. You have mediocre people parenting, no amount of play time in the world is gonna fix that.
And video games! I know the whole media type has a bad rap, and I know how and why it has that rap (and that it’s not totally undeserved), but VIDEO GAMES ARE NOT THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL. THEY DO NOT TURN CHILDREN INTO SHOOTERS. CORRELATION, NOT CAUSATION, DUMBASS. Yes, limit scree-games, yes, limit TV, yes, pay attention to what’s in those shows you let your kid watch, yes, encourage outside play. But DO NOT think that one mediocre form of story-telling is going to turn your kid into a killer.
I just…this whole book, I’d be nodding along with one point, and then the next one would garner a look of absolute horror and disgust. This is the sort of crap that leads to the breast-feeding insanity on the internet. Leads to parents judging other parents. Leads to ranting against New Media, limiting your child’s interaction with real society (which does mostly exist online today), and probably that leads, eventually to all that anti-vax BS.
OH GOD, I have to care for my child as my primary job, like they used to do! I have to make my kid play outside like they used to do! I have to school my child at home like they used to do! I have to isolate my child from violence and keep them innocent like they used to do! I have to feed my kid a paleo diet like they used to do! So…I had better just not vaccinate my kid like they used to do!
After all, the life of a child who lived only a short time in this world is truly blessed, for they will have touched the most lives, and given all those lives they touched a chance to reflect on their own mortality and purpose here in life.
Oh, look, I could have written this book, too.
I don’t know what I’m going to do at this discussion session. I’ll probably bite my tongue, because I doubt I’ll be in like-minded company. And I’m not sure I want to explain to a room full of oldish childcare teachers why it’s so awful.
