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This week’s genetics quote is, once again, from Anxious Parents: A History Of Modern Childrearing In America by Peter N. Stearns:
Genetic explanation of why children were depressed, or unruly, or fat also maintained the ambiguous relationship to parental responsibility that the fascination with frailty had always implied. Flaws were not the fault of children. They were also not the result of parental misbehavior. But they suggested a need for parental compensation, and they implied some responsibility, as well. Parents did not deliberately cause genetic misfiring, but they did provide the genes.
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2041 days ago
[...] Says something about this anxious mother that my first thought upon reading this quote was – “Gosh, just one more piece of ammunition for our kids to blame us for handing down bad genes AND bad parenting.” [...]
2145 days ago
[...] I can’t help but feature Anxious Parents: A History Of Modern Childrearing In America by Peter N. Stearns yet again. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that a book about families should include references to genes. Aptitude tests could in fact be prepared for; hence the proliferation of test tutoring and pressures on instructors to teach for the test. Even if tests measured raw aptitude, there was always the question of whether parents had provided good genes or done enough to ensure learning-intensive early years. [...]