LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY classifiedpeon)

This was originally posted to...well, the subject makes it obvious. redtheda (sorry...don't remember how to do the LJ link thingy) suggested I post it here.

I don't know if any of you have heard of Michael (a minister) and Debi (his wife) Pearl, but they have written a book on training children. It is called To Train Up A Child. Why is this a WTF? Well, because of their technique.

I am unable to paste a link to the entire article, because you have to be a paid subscriber at the site to read it, but there's an excerpt:

"Select your instrument according to the child's size," writes Pearl. "For the under one year old, a little, ten to twelve-inch long, willowy branch (stripped of any knots that might break the skin) about one-eighth inch diameter is sufficient. Sometimes alternatives have to be sought. A one-foot ruler, or its equivalent in a paddle, is a sufficient alternative. For the larger child, a belt or larger tree branch is effective." Additional advice from their Web site: Switching with a length of quarter-inch plumbing supply line is a "real attention-getter."

"Hands," by contrast, "are for loving and helping," Pearl writes.

Yet again, in a sense, so is the switch. "The parent holds in his hand (in the form of a little switch) the power to absolve the child of guilt, cleanse his soul, instruct his spirit, strengthen his resolve, and give him a fresh start through a confidence that all indebtedness is paid..." writes Pearl. "After a short explanation about bad attitudes and the need to love, patiently and calmly apply the rod to his back-side. Somehow, after eight or ten licks, the poison is transformed into gushing love and contentment. The world becomes a beautiful place. A brand new child emerges. It makes an adult stare at the rod in wonder, trying to see what magic is contained therein."

(From "Spare the quarter-inch plumbing supply line, spoil the child" by Lynn Harris, Salon.com)

Among their insights:

- Training children not to climb stairs: Stand at the top of the stairs and coax the small child (usually no more than crawling age) to try to climb up to you. When they do, beat them for it.
- Training a breastfeeding baby not to bite mommy's breast. How? By pulling their hair when they do. There was made mention other alternatives for bald babies, but it didn't say what they were. I'm rather glad for that.

A horrible thing to see - people writing books like this. And worse, others LISTENING to it! One woman's child DIED because she was abusing training him using their methods.

The introduction and first chapter of this monstrosity is here: http://www.gospeltruth.net/children/pearl_tuac.htm

[Edit: I found a long write-up about them, including information about the child who died because his mother was practicing this crap (this is mentioned on page 1). The link is here:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/05/25/the_pearls/index.html

It's a long write up - five pages. But it talks about a lot of the crap these people (though I use the term 'people' loosely) are passing off as good advice.]


[Edit #2: Crap. Sorry. Looks like it's not wanting to work anymore. Sorry about that. Here's the part about the child that died:

While the Pearls are well known in fundamentalist Christian circles, they were largely unknown to the secular world until March, when their discipline methods were tied to the death of a North Carolina boy and the alleged abuse of two of his siblings. As reported by Mandy Locke of the Raleigh News & Observer, the children's adoptive mother, Lynn Paddock, 45, a devotee of the Pearls' teachings, is currently behind bars. She is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 4-year-old Sean, who suffocated when wrapped tightly in blankets, reportedly to keep him from hopping out of bed. She is also charged with felony child abuse in connection with welts found on two of Sean's other five siblings. Nowhere in the Pearls' book do they advocate restraining with blankets; however, Sean's siblings had apparently been struck with a particular type of "rod" recommended by the Pearls: a length of quarter-inch plumbing supply line.

Popular opinion has it that this report (the one about the death/murder charge) might be fake. I dunno. I *do* know it wasn't the death I had originally heard about and was searching for. That one did not mention much about how the boy died, but that his mother had regularly beaten him using their methods. Just FYI.]/