"Don't Say Gay"

[Victor Steinbok]

Funny you should say that. When I was looking at the WSJ article on
French parenting (the same series that had Tiger Mom and an Italian
Mom), the woman at the center of the article (an American in Paris, so
to speak) asked French moms how they disciplined their children and the
French were puzzled by the question. Then they figured out that she
meant "educate".

http://goo.gl/r6wYs
> When I asked French parents how they disciplined their children, it
> took them a few beats just to understand what I meant. "Ah, you mean
> how do we /educate /them?" they asked. "Discipline," I soon realized,
> is a narrow, seldom-used notion that deals with punishment. Whereas
> "educating" (which has nothing to do with school) is something they
> imagined themselves to be doing all the time.

I deliberated whether I should post this on several occasions, including
just last night, when I forwarded the entire piece to yet another
friend. Now I have a good reason to post it here.


     VS-)

On 2/16/2012 11:52 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> Doesn't "indoctrinate" usually have distinct brainwashing connotations
> nowadays? Particularly when applied to children?
>
> Totalitarians "indoctrinate" schoolchildren. We "educate" them.
>
> JL

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