Posted by Eric Abraham on April 14, 2007 at 13:48:19 from 63.245.133.250 user EricAbraham.
In Reply to: Re: 'Should etc etc etc?? posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on April 11, 2007 at 21:46:27:
I think this thread is very relevant to Mr. Ransome's books.
An example of the diametrically opposed method of raising children would be the example set by the parents of the two boys who went totally out of any control, parental or school, in Littleton, Colorado a few years ago. These parents did not excercise ANY supervision, guidence or control of their sons. They were so obsessed with their own lives that they literally divorced themselves from their sons - and we saw the extreme consequence of this lack of responsibiliy. Mr. Ransome's characters alway displayed a great sense of what I like to refer to as the "Three R's", Reason, Responsibiliy,and Respect. Great examples!
We say that they were the norm, then, but there are a number of bad examples in the books, George Owndon, the Hullabaloos, the men who stole Captain Flints book, and Black Jake and the crew of the Viper - without which (like in the real world), we would not have a complete plot.
Most children, I believe, are raised closer to the Swallows and Amazon characters than the extreme examples above -- BUT, it is the parents that are ultimatly responsible. To paraphrase the old addage -- "You can lead a child to a book, but you can't make him read" unless you set the example and reward him/her with approval!
Just my two cents worth.
Eric Abraham - in the center of it all, where Family Values reign supreme.