Taking Children Seriously

Extracted Attributes

• Type

  Educational philosophy

• Key Principle

  Free competition of ideas irrespective of source

• Core Principle

  Children are full individuals

• Founding Figure

  Sarah Fitz-Claridge

• Influencing Figure

  David Deutsch

Timeline

• Conceived by Sarah Fitz-Claridge. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1988-1989

• Grew into an online mailing-list. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1992

Taking Children Seriously

Taking Children Seriously (TCS) is an exploration of parenting and educational philosophy whose central idea is that children are full people.

Web Search Results

• Introduction to the theory of Taking Children Seriously

  Taking Children Seriously is a radically new and different idea about child-rearing. Its most distinctive feature is the idea that it is both possible and desirable to bring up children entirely without doing things to them against their will, or making them do things against their will, and that they are entitled to the same rights, respect and control over their lives as adults. Taking Children Seriously is an educational philosophy in the broadest sense, in that it is about the conditions

• Taking Children Seriously - Fallible Ideas

  Taking Children Seriously (TCS) is a rational, non-coercive philosophy of parenting and learning which says: [...] Some parents view their children as weak, helpless and fragile. Every time their child gets a scratch or faces any conflict, they think it’s a disaster. They expect their child to be scared of rollercoasters, cry when he falls, and find challenges upsetting. They offer emotional comfort to help him cope, and try to avoid telling him he’s wrong. [...] ## Why Taking Children Seriously? There’s millions of different opinions on how to parent. How’d TCS come up with these claims? Why are they better than alternatives? TCS is a rational philosophy. That’s unrelated to the way you’ve probably seen some parents try to “reason” with kids. They’re trying to disguise their orders to sound more gentle, and trying to avoid saying “no” (the answer is still “no”, they just avoid saying it, which is confusing).

• Taking Children Seriously: a new view of children

  Taking Children Seriously means replacing hierarchical, paternalistic, ‘we know best’ relationships, with non-coercive, autonomy-respecting, side-by-side relationships in which all the ideas can compete freely irrespective of source. Taking Children Seriously means taking ideas seriously. Not impeding the growth of knowledge. And for the Popperians in the audience: taking ideas and the growth of knowledge seriously means taking children seriously too. [...] We do need to offer our children all sorts of information—about dangers for example—and access to ideas and criticism that they might want to know about. People find that when they are taking their children seriously, they are trusted consultants to their children. Taking children seriously does not mean not sharing your theories. But it does mean being sensitive to whether or not the other person wants to hear your theory. [...] But actually, they do have reasons—just like we do. And taking children seriously means engaging with their reasons, not discounting them. The standard paternalistic view of children is so ubiquitous that it even appears in books by authors who think they are against coercion and manipulation. So let’s look at some examples. I will be slightly rewording some of them to highlight the anomaly—the double standard in the standard view.

• Taking Children Seriously - Utne Reader

  Taking children seriously means breaking this cycle by insisting on absolutely no coercion no matter what the circumstances. Parents can share their “theories” about the consequences of a child’s action. But because, in their view, no one is infallible, they insist that a parent’s theories are not necessarily more right than the child’s. [...] As it turned out, Sarah Lawrence and her allies weren’t merely like-minded individuals who happened to find themselves in the same chat room. They were, in fact, proponents of a radical parenting movement known as Taking Children Seriously (TCS). Founded in England by Lawrence, who now goes by the name Sarah Fitz-Claridge, a writer, lecturer, and former editor of a homeschooling magazine, TCS is her attempt to extend her libertarian political philosophy into the realm of child rearing. Just as [...] When your son is in a public place, out of your immediate care, and surrounded by 10 or even 20 other children, all trying to listen to the librarian’s story, or learn third-grade fractions, or practice the backstroke, and your son “doesn’t want to” sit down, or complete the worksheet, or do two laps, and my child cannot see the book’s illustrations, or get extra help on the equation that’s difficult, or swim her laps because the librarian or teacher is desperately trying to find a creative,

• Taking Children Seriously - Wikipedia

  | | | --- | | This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Taking Children Seriously" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) | Taking Children Seriously (TCS) is an exploration of parenting and educational philosophy whose central idea is that children are full people. ## Overview [...] TCS was conceived between 1988 and 1989 by Sarah Fitz-Claridge, and later grew into an online mailing-list around 1992. TCS begins with the observation that most traditional interactions between adults and youth are based on coercion. Instead of viewing some sources of ideas – such as parents’ ideas – as having authority, Taking Children Seriously takes the growth of knowledge seriously, which means free competition of the ideas irrespective of source. [...] The TCS model of parenting and education views coercion as infringing on the will of the child, and also rejects parental or educator "self-sacrifice" as infringing on the will of the adult. TCS defines coercion as: "double-binding – putting others in no-win situations – using your ingenuity to actively prevent problems being solved. Authority. Interacting hierarchically. Looking down on." TCS advocates that parents and children act creatively to find solutions without force or compromise.

Taking Children Seriously (T.C.S.) is a parenting movement and educational philosophy whose central idea is that it is possible and desirable to raise and educate children without either doing anything to them against their will or making them do anything against their will.