Bad Therapy

"Why the kids aren't growing up" is the title of a book I am currently reading. (Senintel/Penguin 2024).  I am reading it before I tackle another book. The other book is called "Irreversible Damage: the transgender craze seducing our daughters". Both are by Abigail Shrier. 

I was alerted to the second book by Nicola Morgan's post suggesting people should read it - even if they do not agree with everything the author has to say. It will be very interesting to read what Shrier has to say about "transgender" issues because I find myself largely in agreement with the issues she raises in "Bad Therapy".

On Saturday I had a letter in our state newspaper. I had written it almost a week before. They kept it for Saturday publication which suggests the staff member dealing with correspondence decided it was something which needed to be said by someone.

What I was saying was something which should be obvious. The proposed "misinformation/disinformation" bill going before the Senate is not about protecting us from "bad information" but about preventing us from obtaining information. The proposal is a direct contradiction to any democratic notions about "free speech". Despite claims to the contrary, it could and would be used to try and stifle any criticism of government or any questioning of "politically correct" ideas.

Of course at least one person had to argue with me. I could not, he told me, possibly know that. I could not possibly have written all those letters nobody would have responded to an unknown like me. Nobody in a country like this or the "civilised" (his word) world wants to prevent "free speech".

Really? I beg to differ. Yes, I really did write almost eight thousand letters to people all over the world. Yes, I really did write them before the internet existed. Yes, it did cost me a lot - and not just financially. What did I get from doing it? A great deal but by no means was it all good, far from it. 

There is one thing I can be absoutely certain about however and that is this - literacy skills, the freedom to gather information from many sources and disseminate it again is what underpins what we like to think of as "democracy". 

That the information we get may not always be "correct" is part of that process. We need to educate our children to read and listen with "critical comprehension". They need to be taught to research and question what they see and hear.

So far (and I am about halfway through) Shrier's book suggests this is not happening. I am waiting to see if she raises an issue I believe is very important. What are children being given to read? If they are reading fiction what sort of fiction are they reading? What are the themes present in those books? At one time it was, as a child in the library told me, "(I'm sick of) AIDS and death and divorce". Now it seems books dealing with racism, gender issues, climate change and the like are flavour of the month or year. Children are a captive audience and many of those books will be well written and written with the best of intentions. Whether they are really in the best interests of the child and the future adult reader is something else.

We need literate children. That means much more than being able to read what schools provide. It means more than giving the "correct" answers when asked to show it has been "understood".  I would argue the highest forms of literacy involve the skills of seeking out many sources of information and using critical thinking to evaluate them. It won't be perfect but it is surely better than being denied sources of information because they do not conform with what others think we should know.