Some yet-to-be-created bureaucracy’s, according to Ellen Goodman.
My sister pointed me to this flabbergasting column, in which Goodman describes personal responsibility (for child care!) as “a political stumbling block” and asserts that “we don’t have what every European country has … because Americans don’t regard children as a common good” — as though such an attitude is a symptom rather than a strength.
Actual quotes, which I am not making up:
Kathy Rodgers, the head of NOW LDEF, points out, “no one ever says, `it’s my responsibility to educate my own child, or to doctor my own child when she’s sick.”‘ How do you shift the dialogue to the responsibility of demanding help?
We need a new mirror that reflects child-raising as something more than a private luxury.
Personally, I think it takes The Village to raise a child … ;)