THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 22, 1995 TAG: 9501200246
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Guest Column
SOURCE: BY NORDALE N. NERVIG
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Recently, several social issues welfare cut-off, orphanages, school prayer - have surfaced to be considered for legislation in the near future.
These issues are drawing considerable public response, pro and con, in newspaper and magazine articles. Some of the responses are quite intense with polarizing terms such as ``dictatorship,'' ``racism,'' ``communism,'' often appearing. I'm appalled at the narrowness of perception, or tunnel vision, demonstrated by these responses.
I submit that the legislators and public entering the debate are not focusing on the main issue. These issues are interrelated components of a larger problem - that of the early development of children - and which cannot be resolved in isolation. Attempting to resolve the issues separately will compound the problems and induce additional chaos in an already dysfunctional system.
The decision required isn't a dichotomy between welfare cut-off or orphanages, but a multifaceted decision focusing on the well-being of the child.
In resolving these issues, we need to take a holistic view, which stresses a total, rather than a fragmentary look, emphasizing the larger whole.
Research shows that the experiences of children in their infancy and childhood will profoundly shape everything from their visual acuity to their comprehension of language and social behavior.
If the child is in an environment of hunger, neglect and abuse, then the child should be removed and placed in a clean, loving and supportive setting. If children are left in these debilitating surroundings, they are destined to become personal failures and additional costly burdens to society.
If the child is in a loving, nourishing and supportive environment, regardless of poverty, then the child should remain in that environment and funds should be available to sustain it. A mother's love and supportive home arrangements are the best options for realizing a well-developed child.
A Jesuit maxim states, ``Give me a child for the first six years of life and he'll be a servant of God till his last breath.'' A servant of God or an agent of the devil, a law-abiding citizen or a juvenile delinquent. The results are not predetermined.
What the Jesuits knew, scientists are now rapidly confirming - that the mind of the child, in the very first years, even months and days of life, is the crucible in which many of his or her deepest values are formed. It is then that much of what they may become - their talents, interests, abilities - are developed and directed.
This leads to the observation that prayer in school should not be politicized. Well-adjusted children have already developed these values and will respond to them as they see fit. If these values have not been developed, legislating this value system will have little or no effect on behavior change at this point.
A case in point supporting this thesis is the concerted political effort put into the ``Just Say No'' campaign against drugs. This effort has had little or no effect on changing the behavior of youths. In fact, drug and alcohol abuse by young people is now increasing. The intervention must be made much earlier, and other variables are involved.
However, morals, values, ethics and the existence of religion should not be ignored in schools, as is the case now. Nature abhors vacuums and moves quickly to fill the space. Avoiding the concepts listed above creates a vacuum in which insidious negativism creeps in to fill the void.
As educated people, these folks debating the issues are aware of the cited research findings, but for some reason, their vision has become distorted. It seems that they have been sucked into the vortex of tunnel vision created by the reductionism inherent in the use of rote scientific reasoning.
I submit that we need to generate a new mind-set, enabling us to recognize that our social issues are not separate problems and that they cannot be resolved in isolation. They are interrelated and interdependent components of a larger problem. A holistic but rigorous strategy is needed for problem resolution. We need to press on and broaden our perceptions as we view the issues in our changing social order. MEMO: Dr. Nervig, who lives on Sippel Drive in Chesapeake, is professor
emeritus of vocational educational studies at Southern Illinois
University at Carbondale.
by CNB