The American Family Since Spock
...withal to perpetuate the true word of God who did not shape their children so that they would not reshape the word (or world), were worse than cruel sea monsters.”(5) In the 19th to mid-20th century the focus changed. No longer was the goal to conquer the child’s will, but to being a teacher or trainer, guiding it into proper paths, socializing it. During this time, the father begins, for the first time, to take more than an occasional interest in the child, sometimes, even relieving the mother of some child care duties. (4) Dr. Spock’s Ideas of how a child should be treated, their purpose, was radically different to those of the past experts. His belief was that children should have a lot of love and attention, they should be played with. It is possible that a child born in the middle of the baby boom would confuse Dr. Spock with Dr. Seuss. “It seemed somehow possible that the Cat with a striped stovepipe who bossed the kids in the beloved book also inhabited the well-thumbed paperback that told parents what to do.” The Cat in the hat, taught us to read, while Spock taught parents a less restrictive way of raising children. Both lessons were billed as a liberation from the old dull methods. (2) Dr. Spock also believed that children naturally would do what is best for them. They should be given the opportunity to decide when they wanted to eat and sleep. In Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, Spock states, “A child wants to eat at sensible hours and later learn table manners.” “She will develop her own pattern of sleep according to her needs. In all these habits she will sooner or later want to fit into the family’s way of doing things with only a minimum amount of guidance from you.” To some this advice would appear to give the parent hope, believing that their child would grow up to be a good and reasonable person with little effort on their part. However, after time some parents came to realize that this was not the case. One of the women who had been a follower of Spock’s wrote a letter to him in which she stated, “Don’t you realize that when you always emphasize that a child basically wants to behave well and will behave well if he is handled wisely, you make the parent feel responsible for everything that goes wrong.”(2) Instead of offering parents a sense of peace it placed a heavy burden of guilt on those whose children did not choose to easily conform to the standards society has for its members. As Time went on the first group of children raised under Dr. Spock’s influence grew to become teenagers. The 1960’s, unlike any time before, was one where the young people began to feel they had the right to express their opinions. Having been raised to have their own input into how they should be treated and made to feel that they were the most important part of the family, the youth of this time believed that they knew better than the authorities how our country should be handled. Society, on the other hand, did not agree with many of their actions. Many believed that Spock had “turned out a generation of infants who developed into demanding little tyrants”. Others stated, “The small monsters have grown up to be unkempt, irresponsible, destructive, anarchical, drug-oriented, hedonistic non-members of society.” Even the Reverend Norman Vincent Peale had denounced the youthful generation that was demonstrating in the street and on campuses as “The most undisciplined in history” The student rabble, he complained, “Thinks it can get what it yells for,” thanks to the soft-headed advice dispensed by Dr. Spock, which he summed up this way: “feed’em whatever they want, don’t let them cry, instant gratification of needs.”(2) Many members of the press also voiced their opinion of Dr. Spock’s influence on the young people of that time. Stewart Alsop, a columnist, scolded that the youths had been “Spocked when they should have been spanked.” Newsweek magazine also ran a five-page spread titled, “Is Dr. Spock to blame. This came only six months after a Sociologist at Harvard, Christopher Jencks, Wrote an article titled, “Is it all Dr. Spock’s Fault?” in March, 1968. In this article he probed for reasons why “respect for authority, for the school, for the family, has broken down.” (2) Many Statistics will appear to back up the belief that Dr. Spock’s teachings have had a negative impact on our society. In the schools, the ACT and SAT scores have dropped severely since parents began to follow his advice. It is only recently that we are beginning to see these scores increase once again. Another statistic that would appear to support this belief is the increase in the divorce rate. Since approximately 1973, the divorce rate has doubled. (6) In their book Domestic Revolutions, Steven Mintz and Susan Kellog state, “America ...