A Society of School for Home Age Children

A Society of School for Home Age Children
Jeannette Villatoro
GSI0834D
Joseph Scahill
September 8, 2008










A Society of School for Home Age Children

In today’s society there is a declining standard of morals and values with the uprising of class and status. We value things over family and the cause of this is astronomically unbalanced family lives. One of the casualties of this injustice is children being forced into daycare and preschool. Our society teaches us that this benefits our children but this is an outright lie. I will uncover the truth behind early schooling, why it is fundamentally important for a mother to be home with her children, and how to reach families and motivate a dramatic change for our society.

The Truth behind Daycare

The beginning of the feminist movement began its roots with the first Women’s Conference in 1848 (Weber, 2008). Although it took 70 years before the fruits of labor would show with the first abilities for women to vote, the rights of women have seemingly been a concern since long ago. The feminists made great strides in allowing women to have rights and started along with the “Abolition of Slavery movement” as well as other campaigns such as “equal pay, property rights and higher education for women (Weber, 2008)”. These are unarguably some of the most important issues of our history and the work done to provide equal rights for women should not go uncelebrated. However, there have been extremists who capitalized on this movement and produced harmful deterioration of women’s rights and muddled the other important aspects of women’s roles in society.

Radical feminism started to occur as early as the 1800’s and was quickly viewed as the new age for women. But shortly after gaining many followers of women who merely wanted equally rights, it became quite obvious that radical feminists was not only pro-women but “anti-family”, and thus many followers started to recede (Pizzey, 2007). This movement propelled women to a confusing point in history in which natural rights and devised cultural rights became blurred. It became highly recognized that a woman did not need a man or children and perhaps these aspects were hindrances to a woman’s life process. The idea of marriage and family became an institutional burden imposed on women and grew into an ugly metamorphosis of problematic conditions. Neil Boyd, a professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University for 25 years states “The greatest damage inflicted by radical feminism has occurred in the rewriting of laws regarding sexual and gender relations. If we are not careful, the equality that is being sought will hinder us all in our independence (Boyd, N. )”. It appears that radical feminism is only denouncing the important roles of women and men as an interconnected unit by focusing on what we deserve as individuals. Thus, the “mommy wars” have ensued.

It is not only the child that suffers in this situation. Mothers too have trouble controlling a chaotic life of home and work. According to a recent study conducted for stay at home and working mothers, both seem to agree that working full time is not the best situation (Jayson, 2007). “Among working mothers, 60% now say part-time work is the ideal situation, compared with 48% in 1997. Among at-home moms, 48% say staying home is ideal, up from 39% in 1997. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for 2006, released in May, show only 24% of working moms work part time (Jayson, 2007, pg. 1)”. The ramifications of the working mother along with the child are greatly shown in statistical studies across America. One study by the Pew Research Center displays

The Importance of a Mother

Despite the increasing view that women not only deserve to have a place in working society but must adhere to this right, there are many that still cling to the ideal of a mother nurturing her children from home. Although these homemakers cherish the equal rights fought for in earlier times, they do not subscribe to the radical views of today’s feminism. An intelligent lawyer decides to have a family and stays home when the child is born. Caring for her family does not make her any less intelligent nor does it diminish her hard work in the field she excelled. Assuming her child is brought up in a loving environment, it has stability and much needed closeness with the parents in a cohesive and healthy environment with. There is structure and routine and a loving system of learning. The child is well adjusted and intelligent and learns how important the roles of relationships are in this world and the way that others should be treated. This child is happy, carefree and inquisitive. This is clearly aspects of an upbringing that daycare cannot provide.

A businesswoman marries and continues her long hours at work. Her husband and she decide to start a family and she quickly finds out she is expecting. She longs for the new direction her life is going, and she is elated that she will soon be a mother. Once the child enters this world, however, she does very little to change her life accordingly. She continues working full time and her child goes to daycare as an infant. The child is listless and uncertain of its surroundings. It has little affection and caring and misses its parents. “Last year the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) released data linking longer hours in child care to misbehavior (McHale, 2002)”.

A Proposal for Change

Environment is a huge factor in the productivity of preserving family ethics. A woman should know her choices are abundant and any path can be taken as so chosen. But it is clear that trying to be a working mother has become an irony that cannot fulfill both needs. Therefore, a woman should choose to be a working woman or a mother respectively. And because a woman is a mother does not mean she cannot continue or later develop her education or work life. Children grow and attend school beginning at an early age, giving mothers a window of opportunity to plunge into the world as a new entity. But society pushes daycare on mothers and the government advertises the importance of preschool for the young child.



References

Boyd, N. (2004). Big Sister: How Extreme Feminism has Betrayed the Fight for
Sexual Equality. Greystone Books: New York.

Jayson, S. (2007). Attitude gap widens between working, stay-at-home moms. Retrieved
September 6, 2008, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-12-mommy-wars_N.htm.

McHale, D. (2002). Talking About Childcare: What’s the Research Really Say?
Retrieved September 4, 2008, from http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/family_time/childcare.html.

Pizzey, E. (2006). DadsNow. Retrieved September 3, 2008, from
http://www.dadsnow.org/vawa/vawa2.htm.

Weber, B. (2008). The Women’s Movement – Our History. Retrieved September
4, 2008, from http://feminism.eserver.org/theory/feminist/Womens-Movement.html.