INDEX OF QUOTES
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On contemplating your conference theme, Today's Child, Tomorrow's Adult, I am immediately reminded of Alfred Adler’s (1930) statement to the effect that the child is not merely a being: he is a becoming. As child care workers you in turn, I am sure, do not find the essence of this statement foreign to your thinking, even though it may be grammatically unusual. After all, you daily witness the fascinating and complex process of becoming in children; you frequently focus your attention on the effects of inadequate parenting on children’s becoming; and you realise the imprint your attitudes and behaviour leave on the process of becoming latent in each particular child in your care. The theme of your conference also brings to mind Goodman’s (1960) partial answer to the anthropological question: "Who is man/child?" The answer reads: "Being the next generation, children a priori belong to society". Consequently, children need to feel themselves part of, at home in humanity As far back as we can trace human history, we have no evidence of an individual effectively living alone over an extended, uninterrupted period of time. There has always been community and the law of community Man does not have the natural weapons of animals: no vicious teeth, not the wings of birds nor the acuteness of vision, hearing or smell which enable him to defend himself or to attack dangers and threats. Man’s weakness made him join up with others, and this joining gives him new strength. This joining together was, in fact, one of the greatest ‘inventions’ of mankind. The child, too, is designed for union with others. The way he looks, listens, speaks and reaches out to you and others, represents the bond he establishes between himself and humanity as such, society at large and the community he comprehends as his intimate environment. As child care workers you are influential key figures in all three spheres of the big wide world in which the child has to find his way to adulthood. Bonding reminds us of the significance of relationships in the process of becoming. Bonding in relationships has become a popular concept, often and incorrectly confined to the mother-child dyad. Children and adults bond with significant others, and bonding during childhood will determine bonding in adulthood since bonds provide a pattern for future relationships and subsequent personality development. |
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Adler, A. (1930) The Problem Child. New York:
Cosmopolitan Books
Goodman, P. (1960) Growing up absurd. New York: Vintage Books