This child: descriptive review in support of parental ethics

ABSTRACT

In response to the abundance of parenting literature and a contemporary emphasis on expertise, recent scholars have suggested that how we parent should be determined by values and a family’s particular needs, a combination often referred to as practical wisdom. In this article, I build on previous calls for an ethical approach to being a parent. I argue that being able to share and cultivate one’s unique personality and have one’s aptitudes and interests recognized is a key condition of living well and that parents play an important role in helping their children know and realize their gifts. I put forth an exercise for attending to children, the descriptive review of the child. In doing so, I first describe this practice, illustrate it, and then explain how it can help one live well as a parent.

KEYWORDS:

• Descriptive Inquiry
• ethics
• parenting
• practical wisdom

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to Stephanie Burdick–Shepherd and Jeff Frank for conceiving of the panel for which this article was initially crafted and for the active participation of the audience at the Philosophy of Education Society Yearly Meeting 2017 that shaped this article further.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Instead of his real name, I’ve chosen a name my son particularly liked as a two-year-old.

2. I am not arguing against generalized data and expert knowledge. My concern is an overreliance on these sources.

3. I have found the exercise works well to describe any age person. As the average parent may not know many children well, they would benefit from trying the exercise with adults as well.

4. Lest this strike others as too tidy, George is now three and sometimes offers extremely dramatic rejection of the new and other times embraces novelty.