The Contributions of the Family to the Development of Competence in Children

The ideal home or school in the late 1940's and 1950's was organized around unlimited acceptance of the child's current needs for gratification, rather than around preparation for adult life. The child was to be granted maximum freedom of choice and self-expression in both settings. Spock's 1946 edition of Baby and Child Care advocated such infant-care practices and the extension into early childhood of lenient disciplinary practices. Yet the avalanche of studies on the effects of infant-care practices did not support the supposed harmful effects of such restraints on the child as scheduled feeding, early weaning, and early toilet training. Indeed, Spock's emphasis altered in the 1957 edition. Comparing the changes in child-rearing practices from 1940 to 1955, he stated that Since then a great change in attitude has occurred and nowadays there seems to be more chance of a conscientious parent's getting into trouble with permissiveness than strictness (p. 2). In his Redbook columns (beginning in 1964) and his new book entitled Raising Children in a Difficult Time (1974), Spock speaks out more affirmatively for the reinstitution of parental controls and for the inculcation by the parent of ideals and standards. The vigorous introduction of permissive and child-centered attitudes into educational philosophy began at least 40 years ago (Coriat 1926 and Naumberg 1928) as an outgrowth of the psychoanalytic theory of psychosexual development. The view that the effects of adult authority on the child are inhibiting, neurotogenic, and ethically indefensible was promoted by such articulate spokesmen as Goodman (1964), Maslow (1954), A. S.