Sunday, October 18, 2009

Platform Video: Raising Freethinkers

The following ECS/Bergen Platform address was delivered on Sunday, October 18, 2009, by Dale McGowan (introduced by Dr. Joseph Chuman):

Dale McGowan: Raising Freethinkers from Ethical Culture Society Bergen on Vimeo.

Much is rightly made of raising children who are compassionate, intelligent, moral, and well-adjusted. But too often, these values are placed in opposition to raising independent thinkers. Allow them to think for themselves, goes the reasoning, and our children just might think their way into immorality and self-indulgent chaos.

Dale McGowan argues that this is one of several areas in which we often work counter to our own intentions, and that parents who raise independent thinkers are actually more likely to end up with compassionate, intelligent, moral, and well-adjusted kids.

McGowan edited and co-authored Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers and serves as executive director of Foundation Beyond Belief, a new humanist charitable and educational foundation. In 2008, he was named Humanist of the Year by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University.

Dale holds degrees in physical anthropology and music theory from UC Berkeley as well as a Ph.D. in music composition and theory from the University of Minnesota. He and his wife Becca, a first grade teacher, live near Atlanta with their three kids—Delaney (7), Erin (11), and Connor (14).

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