We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the need to safeguard children's rights and perspectives just as adults are protected by laws and norms.
Steven Pinker highlights the hypocrisy of adult protection measures that do not extend to children, urging society to recognize and consider the vulnerabilities children face. He advocates for a shift in perspective that accounts for children's needs and experiences, suggesting that failing to do so is a result of either indifference or a lack of effort to empathize with their situation.
In practice
During a discussion on child welfare policies, this quote could be referenced to highlight the importance of considering children's perspectives.
The foundation of individual rights is the assumption that people have wants and needs and are authorities on what those wants and needs are. If people's stated desires were just some kind of erasable inscription or reprogrammable brainwashing, any atrocity could be justified.
The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.
If we are not to abandon values such as peace and equality, or our commitments to science and truth, then we must pry these values away from claims about our psychological makeup that are vulnerable to being proven false.
The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is a far greater determinant of its development and achievements than parental aspiration.
Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.
Photography is a kind of virtual reality, and it helps if you can create the illusion of being in an interesting world.
You write for two people, yourself and your audience, who are usually better educated and at least as smart.
What if there was a library which held every book? Not every book on sale, or every important book, or even every book in English, but simply every book - a key part of our planet's cultural legacy.
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
I wrote 'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret' right out of my own experiences and my own feelings when I was in sixth grade.
Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.
One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.
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