The One Best Way? Breastfeeding History, Politics, and Policy in Canada
By Tasnim Nathoo and Aleck Ostry
An excerpt of the book summary reads: “Breastfeeding has officially been considered “the one best way” for feeding infants for the past 150 years of Canadian history. This book examines the history and evolution of breastfeeding policies and practices in Canada from the end of the nineteenth century to the turn of the twenty-first. The authors’ historical approach allows current debates to be situated within a broader social, political, cultural, and economic context.”
You should get it, really. Why? Because it is fantastic, well written, engaging, and informative. Also, breastfeeding practices are relevant to every single one of our lives. There is no escaping the reality that we all had to be fed something in our infancy, and you can be certain that questions as to “the one best way” to feed babies have been swirling fervently over the years.
In fact, debates surrounding decency and harassment (see WestJet harassment article and Delta/Freedom Air complaint), safety and regulation (see Drunken Breastfeeding article), acceptability (see Facebook’s War on Nipples article), and other elements of breastfeeding are still in the forefront of our daily lives. All of this controversy despite the fact that breastfeeding is indeed touted by both governmental and non-governmental health organization as the recommended way to feed your child.
This book is both fascinating and timely. For all our recommendations and guidelines, our "progressive" attitudes, and the right to breastfeed in public, the breastfeeding debates still reign.
For more information on the book check out the Wilfrid Laurier University Press website, and follow their blog for discussions of breastfeeding in the news. To purchase, check out amazon, chapters, or your local book store.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Increasing Potential, Decreasing Expectations
I think we have a problem in our society, a problem of decreasing expectations for individuals’ intellect, growth, progress, and general achievement. As a species, we have increasing potential as to what we are capable of achieving; we have more resources available to us now than we did 100 years ago, we know more about what is required for healthy growth and development, and in North America we have a wealth of resources and knowledge at our disposal. Yet despite this, our expectations for what people are capable of achieving seem to be slipping.
Take for example our changing perspective on children’s education: We don’t fail children in elementary school anymore, lest it hurt their feelings to be held back (like illiteracy isn’t going to hurt their feelings later on); We don’t push kids to learn more efficiently in public school because “they’re just kids, they should be playing not working.” And while that may be true to a certain degree, I have a nagging feeling that the expectations for how much children should be learning and retaining may just be slipping.
Why exactly don’t we set the bar higher for kids as they learn and grow? It’s great that we let kids be kids and all, truly, I am all for play, and fun, and recreation. I am not an advocate of over scheduled overstressed kids, nor would I suggest longer hours in school. But I do believe it is important to remember that children work towards what is expected of them, and children grow up to be adults one day. If we aren’t teaching children basic life management skills, they won’t simply acquire them on the day they become adults. Teaching children to set goals, work towards achievements, focus, and cope with disappointment can be hard lessons to watch, but they are all intended to help little people become highly functioning bigger people. Left to their own devices children will not magically grow into independent, educated, articulate, employed, even content, adults.
If we don’t have expectations for our children, they won’t grow to reach them. If we treat them as though they don’t need to learn to tie their own shoes, then they won’t be able to (for no actual reason other than decreased expectations and lacking lessons). And if we teach them that they can get through school regardless of what they learn, well then, we’ll have ourselves a nation of illiterate adults, with no one to blame but ourselves.
I find this troubling. It seems that although we have just about everything we need to continue growing into our increasing human potential, we aren’t taking advantage of that.
Now I am well aware that within the overall cultural practice I am droning on about there are most undeniably people in our society who challenge themselves every chance they get. They set extremely high standards for themselves, and help propel society forward in new ways. But as a whole, as a culture responsible for building and defining our education system, and our societal expectations, I find myself seriously questioning whether our general standards and expectations are increasing in appropriate relation to our human potential.
It is possible of course that expectations simply appear to be decreasing because, well, maybe it’s because I am aging, and I do believe that this sort of complaint has been a historically consistent gripe as people age (“Back in my day ...”). But I’m not really that old, so I’m not entirely convinced that my aging explains the concern I am documenting. So maybe, maybe it’s something more nuanced. Maybe our expectations are simply remaining constant as out potential grows, thus creating the impression of decreasing expectations, when really it’s more like stagnating than actively decreasing.
Either way, I find it all a little sad. So I guess the questions of today are: (1) Does anyone else feel like maybe our expectations are slipping, or am I just being a negative nancy? And, (2) Assuming that they are decreasing, how large will the gap between potential and actual have to get before we find it problematic enough to act on?
Take for example our changing perspective on children’s education: We don’t fail children in elementary school anymore, lest it hurt their feelings to be held back (like illiteracy isn’t going to hurt their feelings later on); We don’t push kids to learn more efficiently in public school because “they’re just kids, they should be playing not working.” And while that may be true to a certain degree, I have a nagging feeling that the expectations for how much children should be learning and retaining may just be slipping.
Why exactly don’t we set the bar higher for kids as they learn and grow? It’s great that we let kids be kids and all, truly, I am all for play, and fun, and recreation. I am not an advocate of over scheduled overstressed kids, nor would I suggest longer hours in school. But I do believe it is important to remember that children work towards what is expected of them, and children grow up to be adults one day. If we aren’t teaching children basic life management skills, they won’t simply acquire them on the day they become adults. Teaching children to set goals, work towards achievements, focus, and cope with disappointment can be hard lessons to watch, but they are all intended to help little people become highly functioning bigger people. Left to their own devices children will not magically grow into independent, educated, articulate, employed, even content, adults.
If we don’t have expectations for our children, they won’t grow to reach them. If we treat them as though they don’t need to learn to tie their own shoes, then they won’t be able to (for no actual reason other than decreased expectations and lacking lessons). And if we teach them that they can get through school regardless of what they learn, well then, we’ll have ourselves a nation of illiterate adults, with no one to blame but ourselves.
I find this troubling. It seems that although we have just about everything we need to continue growing into our increasing human potential, we aren’t taking advantage of that.
Now I am well aware that within the overall cultural practice I am droning on about there are most undeniably people in our society who challenge themselves every chance they get. They set extremely high standards for themselves, and help propel society forward in new ways. But as a whole, as a culture responsible for building and defining our education system, and our societal expectations, I find myself seriously questioning whether our general standards and expectations are increasing in appropriate relation to our human potential.
It is possible of course that expectations simply appear to be decreasing because, well, maybe it’s because I am aging, and I do believe that this sort of complaint has been a historically consistent gripe as people age (“Back in my day ...”). But I’m not really that old, so I’m not entirely convinced that my aging explains the concern I am documenting. So maybe, maybe it’s something more nuanced. Maybe our expectations are simply remaining constant as out potential grows, thus creating the impression of decreasing expectations, when really it’s more like stagnating than actively decreasing.
Either way, I find it all a little sad. So I guess the questions of today are: (1) Does anyone else feel like maybe our expectations are slipping, or am I just being a negative nancy? And, (2) Assuming that they are decreasing, how large will the gap between potential and actual have to get before we find it problematic enough to act on?
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
New strategy
Okay, new strategy. Since that poetic “Welcome back” from the beginning of May really only carried us through the end of the month, at which point I apparently became entirely distracted with life and somehow managed to not post any of my thoughts, I now have a new approach. No more niceties of hello, goodbye, or (attempts at) consistent posting. Love it or leave it, you’ll just have to perch on the edge of your chair and await the spontaneous sharing of my musings. (Or you can just subscribe to the blog in your newsreader and then you’ll know tout de suite when a new posting is there for your reading pleasure.) So stay tuned, there are plenty more unclassified thoughts and written words to come ... spontaneously.
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