Task is to socialize

The parents of “transgender child” Rachel White are concerned about coming adolescence. They should be. I taught for 12 years at a performing arts high school that was as tolerant a place as one could hope for. The transgender students I saw lasted only about a month at the school. One transgender student spent the semester crying on a table outside an art classroom. These students simply could not find a place for themselves.

Beyond Rachel, the tragedy of this story is the misunderstanding of her parents and the psychological establishment of their place in the lives of children. The role of parents throughout human history has primarily been to socialize their children. It is not to make them “happy,” but to help them become stable, healthy, productive members of their society. Now, with the help of psychologists, the role is reversed. We are to socialize the culture to the individual child.

One can only compare the paper’s emotional, one-sided view of the transgender debate with J. Peder Zane’s insightful opinion piece on how this issue brings into question the very nature of reality. Is it as fluid as our thinking, even against hard physical realities? The implications are profound.

James Becker

Spokane