How Dr. Spock Destroyed America

A Thoughtful Response

This article, written by the WND staff, delivers evidence of how we became unbridled in our belief that sparing the rod would produce well-balanced children—absent of all the anxiety caused by chaos in the home. While it is true that when the wrong kind of discipline is doled out, and done so liberally without regard for what the child is even learning, it may cause harm. However, when no discipline at all is used to correct/raise a child, we produce what we may now call an unruly generation.

In fact, it’s been several generations since Dr. Spock published his book. It’s changed the world as we know it! In all the homes in which I have conducted evaluations, the most chaotic ones are those without rules or roles for family members to live by—homes following Dr. Spock’s model where personal responsibility takes a back seat to gratification.

Dr. Spock didn’t influence our family much. I recall as a child there were consequences for everything we did. We learned to consider those consequences before leaping into uncharted territory. It’s a model that works when affection, understanding and respect are present as well.

Unfortunately, the solution to high crime levels in America goes beyond the scope of this article, but if we look at the true value of discipline in the home, the answer is obvious to any reasonable person.