Arguments Against Paternalism

Within Kohn’s essay he responds to the accusations of selfishness and ungratefulness given to the younger generations today. He finds it ridiculous at this point how stereotypical the beliefs of older generations are about younger generations and their more liberal thinking, it's always the same accusations again and again. Kids are always ungrateful and they never learn to appreciate what life they have been given, is too overheard within this topic, “ they have become our society’s conventional wisdom about children...it will almost be from this direction”. Kohn also says, that too many always claim that discipline from the parents is too common, “If the subject is discipline (and limits imposed by parents), the writer will insist that kids today get too little”. He states that these claims are all misconceptions and both the child and the parent should not be at fault because these myths are just not true, there is no evidence to show, “what impact, if any, this practice has on the kids”. Statistical evidence also shows how these assertions are wrong by showing how all articles that condemn young people are merely recycling the same information and, “only 27 percent of educators in the sample report having seen “many” examples of overinvolved parenting”, this is a very low number from a sample of families within school districts. Kohn demonstrates that even educators who see the children year-round don’t see the “common” overbearing parent raising their children to be narcissistic and egotistical adults.

Adults can provide a foundation from which children can grow, but they can provide only

From infancy to adult, people are making decisions all day long. How long to study for the upcoming test? What sport to play? What college to attend? As choices are made, often goals are set to ensure maximum potential is achieved. This process of decision-making and goal setting is overbearing shadowed by the authoritarian style of parenting.

The frameworks of the Belmont report have several contrasts with the Anti-paternalism frameworks. Paternalism can be defined as behavior of a person, group of individuals or state that deny or limit

child and the adult, the greater the dependency and therefore the greater the power that

Often times, children of permissive parents are manipulative. This is because the parents submit to their children if they act out. Children of permissive parents are impulsive, the children do not learn how to control themselves. Children brought up by this parenting style “do slightly worse in school during adolescence and are more likely to be aggressive and somewhat immature in their behavior with peers and in school”

the “compliance trap”. One does not have to be a parent to accept the fact that children

The hypervigilance of parents where they dictate everything that their child does actually does damage to the child because it stunts the development of internal motivation in these students (Margolies, 2016). If my parents had told me what clubs to be in, what sports to do, what classes to take, and what homework to do at what time then I never would have developed the motivation to choose for myself. It would have actually made me less capable of choosing things for myself, thus causing more stress in my life as more responsibility would fall on me as my schooling continues. The other dangerous way that this forced culture of perfectionism damages these youths is when they seem to be the perfect student, excelling in their studies in high school, and then without this constant support they crash in college and can quickly spiral out of control, not knowing how to handle this new stress as they no longer have the hypervigilance or the praise of their parents to keep them going. Helicopter parents think that by controlling these aspects of their child’s life will benefit them and create the best possible outcome for them. This is very obviously false as it is creating the situation of a severely underdeveloped child.

• Authoritarian parenting children may have less social competence due to the parent or parents telling the child what to do instead of allowing the child to make a choice. In some cases the demands are to forceful and resulted with the child or children to break down, rebel or run away.

Paternalism is in place to look out for and enforce what is in our best interest, whether they are choices we would or would not make. If decisions we make now are likely to be regretted in the future and are more likely to be irreversible, paternalistic intervention is there to step in and aid the decision. For example, someone chooses to drop out of school at a young age. That person will eventually regret this decision because they will find it hard to get a job with limited education, and also find it virtually impossible to put themselves back through school with limited funds to do so. This situation is a justified situation for paternalism to step in. Paternalism is mainly used in large decisions in people’s lives, decisions that involve high stakes. The advantages of having paternalism in place is that in the long run, with paternalistic intervention, our decisions will be better made. Paternalism is used by officials when make public policy. They look at your surface preferences and judge them on a standard of deeper preferences when configuring limitations and freedoms. There are, however, four types of preferences that prevent paternalistic intervention. They are relevant, settled, preferred, and your own preferences. As

The key role played by child-rearing values in tapping distinct worldviews had already been highlighted since the early 1960s. As Martin (1964, p. 86) argues “how to ‘bring up’ or socialize children is a matter of profound consequence, involving basic human values and objectives”. The child- rearing values scale taps the trade-off that lies at the heart of the concept of authoritarianism, namely the dilemma between personal autonomy and submission to conventional norms, without at the same time touching on specific political

The issue of child welfare is typified in the society mainly because of freedom of choice to be given to the children. There are certain social problems which are discussed frequently in this context. The major problems include the rights of child and access to privileges. It is argued that child is an individual who has no lesser rights than any other individual and he must be given the liberty to enjoy these rights. He must be given food, shelter and clothing without his contribution in the economic activity. He should be given the right to educate himself and the decision to study any particular subject may lie in his own domain.

Paternalism greatly focuses on the restriction of liberty. If liberty is restricted then you are restricting someone from being autonomous. The moral issue is that it conflicts with some a lot of moral theories including Kantianism, Autonomy and Utility. Mill makes a rebuttal by stating that paternalism greatly takes away the individual rights of making a rational decision, not “non-age”, but mature individuals. That means that those who rational enough to make a decision. Even though the decision may be deplorable such as not wearing a seat belt while driving, but a mature individual should be able to make their own decision. Overall, Mill states that it is a privilege to be an autonomous individual; that is why paternalism goes against the

The period of childhood is considered a time of passive and obedience. Where children’s knowledge and experiences are decided and provided for them by their parents and authorities (Sorin 2005; Woodrow 1999). The purpose of this position paper is to explain both sides of the issue – ‘are children naturally powerless, or is their subordinate position in society socially constructed. My position for this debate is the affirmative, No!!

It is common to see parents do everything for their children. They obey the wishes and demands of their children to make them happy. This is a faulty practice and can have negative impacts. It isn’t always good to spoil children. It can hinder a child’s abilities to be independent if a parent does everything for their child.