Parental Determinism

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Parent-determinism ( Engl. Parental determinism ) is a by Frank Furedi coined term with which he the one referred to popular thinking, the individual problems of people who add up to social problems holdings unilaterally to the failure of parents education returns. While factors in the family environment and in society are systematically overlooked, the responsibility for people's success in life is placed on their parents to a degree that they cannot do justice to with their limited resources. After parental determinism in the past mostly aimed at parents from lower social classes - especially poor mothers - this thinking has recently been increasingly extended to parents of the social middle class.

State influence on families

As the basis of the doctrine of parental determinism, Furedi names the prejudice that the well-being of both the child and society is more or less entirely determined by the quality of home education. Socio-economic and cultural factors, which are no less responsible for this, are systematically ignored, according to Furedi.

According to Furedi, parental determinism is carried by politicians, their experts and the “education industry”. As examples of social problems that they blame for upbringing, he cites u. a. the 2011 riots in England , substance abuse, child obesity, minor pregnancy, educational problems, mental disorders and the breakdown of social systems.

Furedi's criticism is particularly directed at David Cameron , who campaigns for the establishment of education courses for parents and, as Furedi fears, tries to enforce more state participation in families. His criticism also applies to B. but also the former welfare minister Frank Field ( Labor Party ), whom he describes as "one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the parental determinism prejudice".

Furedi is convinced that in view of the alleged complexity of upbringing, exaggerated by so-called experts, the self-confidence of parents is systematically undermined and families are ultimately weakened.

Intensification of home education

Furedi's theses play a major role in the discourses of the young discipline of parenting culture . So the sociologist Charlotte Faircloth sees connections between the politicization of parental home education described by Furedi on the one hand and current trends in parental home education - such as attachment parenting , "intensive motherhood" and generally a historically unprecedented intensity of the domestic upbringing - on the other hand.

What can parents do?

Many parents judge their own success in life based on their children's success in life. In view of the effort involved in raising children, this is understandable on the one hand, but on the other hand parents also tend to quickly blame themselves for the failure of a child. Growing up of children is by no means affected by the parents alone, but by countless other social institutions and influences, including schools, the neighborhood, religious communities, the media, the health system and the economy. Parents can guide children in dealing with these influences, but as a rule they cannot change the institutions.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank Furedi: Parental determinism: a most harmful prejudice. Retrieved December 2, 2015 . ; Timo Heimerdinger: Simply the Best: Parenthood as a competitive practice . In: Markus Tauschek (Hrsg.): Cultures of competition: Formations of competitive logics . Waxmann, Münster a. a. 2013, ISBN 978-3-8309-7727-8 , pp. 249–268 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ^ Ellie Lee , Jennie Bristow, Charlotte Faircloth , Jan Macvarish : Parenting Culture Studies . Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, ISBN 978-1-137-30463-6 , pp. 3 .
  3. ^ Neil Gilbert, Nigel Parton, Marit Skivenes: Child protection systems: International trends and orientations , New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2011, ISBN 9780199793358
  4. ↑ a b c d Frank Furedi: Parental determinism: a most harmful prejudice. Retrieved December 2, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Intensive Parenting. Retrieved December 2, 2015 .
  6. ^ Charlotte Faircloth: This obsession with parenting is out of control. Retrieved December 2, 2015 . The Conversation, July 22, 2014
  7. ^ A b Historical and Philosophical Roots of Early Childhood Practice . In: Leslie R. Williams, Doris Pronin Fromberg (Eds.): Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Education . tape 30 . Routledge, London, New York 1992, ISBN 978-0-415-67251-1 , pp. 42 ( limited preview in Google Book search).