Jenny writes about parenting culture and inter-generational relations. Alongside frequent appearances on radio and in newspapers, she is editor of the BPAS journal Abortion Review, and runs the editing service Punctuate!. Jenny is author of Standing Up To Supernanny (Imprint Academic 2009) and co-author of Licensed to Hug: How child protection policies are poisoning the relationship between the generations and damaging the voluntary sector (Civitas 2008). Bristow writes the monthly ‘Guide to Subversive Parenting’ on spiked and edits the website www.ParentsWithAttitude.com.
The End of Adult Authority? with Jennie Bristow
Thursday, 23 June 2011 - 7:15pm to 9:00pm
Bringing up children now seems to be a battleground. At stake is the self-esteem and future resilience of the child. Get it wrong and we apparently risk damaging children permanently.
To some, children appear to rule the roost with an abdication of responsibility by adults for disciplining children. To others, the maxim ‘the child is always right’ is still seen as an indispensable approach to the socialisation of the young.
At the same time, pupils are asked to judge teachers' performance while parents continually question and condemn the teaching methods and disciplinary procedures of other adults. Under such circumstances, the idea of adult solidarity being fundamental to bringing up children may hold no sway.
Elsewhere, intervention and ‘support’ from a well-manned army of outside bodies into the adult-child relationship calls into question the ability of adults to make decisions and judgements about their children. Is there anything about adulthood that is worth passing on to the next generation? Or are adults simply a collection of ‘facilitators’ between one generation and the next?
Speaker
Chair
Sean is a founder member of The Brighton Salon and a journalist who formerly worked in the local press industry and on the magazines Computing and Campaign. Sean has written dozens of reviews of salon events and occasionally contributes to other publications. He has been involved with many and various political and cultural campaigns for many years.
Sean writes freelance about the relationship between journalism the public and runs an editing and proofing company. He also organises activities for The Brighton Salon as its secretary.