Raising a Child of Freethought
Dateline: August 30, 2000
"RAISING A CHILD OF FREETHOUGHT" > Page 1 , 2 , 3 , 4
Exploring Philosophy
Recently, as both my son and I have explored philosophy, there have been some times of disagreement. Most notably, we seem to be at odds over the issue of Objectivism. I purchased some of Ayn Rand's books on her philosophy, and looked at them briefly. I found that I disagreed with some of the things that she wrote, especially on the subject of ethics.
However, I passed the books along to my son, who found them fascinating. Shortly thereafter, I found him studying more and more of Rand's work, reading "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged." On several occasions, we found ourselves disagreeing on a basic level. Most of the time, we tried to handle this in a calm manner.
This is not to say that I don't get upset over these disagreements. I have gotten a bit heated at times. However, I am content to ride out the difficulties of our differences of opinion. My attitude concerning them is that it's a passing phase.
Phases of Freethought
I don't use that term lightly, or flippantly. I consider it to be a natural outcome of the attitude of Freethought. As I understand from Professor Russell's quote above, Freethought means that nothing is set in stone. One who thinks freely should be willing at any time to have any part of his personal philosophy called into question, and to boldly investigate those questions.
As such, I think it's obvious that we should expect everyone who thinks freely to change their philosophy from time to time during the course of their lives. So naturally, at any given time, a Freethinker should be in "a passing phase."
When I started out as the parent of a newborn son, I had a plan in mind. I wanted to support my son in his decisions concerning his life, and to accept him as a member of the family, no matter what he decided to do with his life. I was aware that seeking to bring him up as an open-minded, independent adult would carry with it the possibility that he would choose a path that I would disagree with.
Having made that passage myself, I felt it was important to show my son that he would be accepted and loved, regardless of the choices he made, so long as he followed my desire that he remain honest and moral in his actions.
I have found that the journey through these 18 years has been far more bumpy and rewarding than I could have dreamed at the start. I can't help but think that I have been successful, in spite of the fact that I didn't reach this stage of life in quite the manner that I thought I would when I started. But as the saying goes, the destination is not nearly so important as the journey itself.
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