Food for thought

Every once in awhile I flit across an interesting human behavior article on CNN (or maybe Time even, I like them both) and it gets me thinking. I know, I know, dangerous thing me thinking and all. This particular article was very short and to the point
Babies go to school to teach
And what it basically said is that they bring a baby in to class to see if the kids can understand what the baby is feeling through body language. The original point was to help build a more peaceful and civil society through children. What they found was that it reduced bullying because they could empathize better. And all they did was expose them to a baby and her momma and asked them about body language.

Seems simple doesn't it? But the fact the third graders learned important social behaviors from it tells me there are some bigger social issues going on here. Apparently empathy isn't something you're born with, it's something you learn. Where do you learn it? Your parents (I'm assuming here)? TV (more likely)? And don't you think many of these children would be able to see this momma baby relationship at home or with friends that have baby siblings?

And there's the rub huh? With the whole 60's sexual revolution women earned the right to be equal (yeah right) in the work force so now we all get to go to work for 10+ hours a day. And come home, cook, clean, do homework with the kids, get them ready for bed, and sure we've got plenty of money for multiple children. Now that both adults are working and we spend all that money on child care. Because we earned the right to be in the work force and pawn our children off to child care businesses. I have a problem seeing how we're so much better off this way. Now that we can mass produce offspring and pay a business to raise them for us.

So these children are learning about relationships and empathy by having someone other than their mom (who can't possibly have the time or money for another kid) and somewhere other than in their own home. Because, you know, the public schooling system, in theory, is not responsible for building the basis with our children's morals but in the end somebody has to do it. It's not like parents have the time for it any more right?

See, it was a short article but I think they left out a whole bunch. Talk about not seeing the forest through the trees. Or maybe I'm just hormonal today. Lord knows it's always a high possibility.....