思春期における親子の対立
上流階級や専門職階級においては，子供が幼い間は保母にまかせておき，その後は寄宿学校（全寮制の学校）に入れるのが慣行になっている。母親が保母を選び，父親が学校を選ぶ。そうして，子供に対する権力意識（子供への影響力を自分は持っているという意識）を，少しも損なわれなわずに，維持する。それは（これは），労働者階級の親には許されないことである。しかし，母と子の親しい接触というに関するかぎり，概して，賃金労働者よりも，富裕層（有産階級）の間のほうが少ない。（富裕層の）父親は（も），休日には子供と遊びの関係を持つが，労働者階級の父親と同様，子供の（うわべだけでなく）真の教育には参与しない。もちろん，（富裕層の）父親には，経済上の責任と，子供をどこで教育するかを決定する権限はあるが，子供との個人的な接触は，通例，あまり重要な類のものではない。
子供が思春期に達すると，両親と子供の間に，衝突が非常に起こりやすくなる。なぜなら，子供（後者）は，今や自分のことは自分で完全にうまくやれると考えているのに，親（前者）は，親としての気遣い（心配）でいっぱいであるからであるが，その気遣い（心配）は権力愛の偽装であることが多い。親は，通例，思春期に生じるさまざまな道徳上の問題は，とりわけ自分の専門だと考えている。けれども，彼ら（親）の述べる意見はひどく独断的なので，若者はめったに胸のうちを親には明かさないで(the young seldom confide in them )，通例，秘密裏に自分の好きなとおりにする。それゆえ，この時期（この段階）においては，大部分の親は大いに役に立つとは言えない（あまり役に立たないと言わざるをえない）。
|
Chapter XIII: Family at present day, n.11
In the upper and professional classes, the custom is to leave children to nurses while they are young, and then send them to a boarding-school. The mother chooses the nurse, and the father chooses the school, so that they preserve intact their sense of power over their offspring, which working-class parents are not allowed to do. But so far as intimate contact is concerned, there is less, as a rule, between mother and child among the well-to-do than among wage-earners. The father has a play relation with his children in holidays, but has no more part in their real education than a working-class father. He has, of course, economic responsibility and the power of deciding where they shall be educated, but his personal contact with them is not usually of a very serious kind.
When a child reaches adolescence, there is very apt to be a conflict between parents and child, since the latter considers himself to be by now quite capable of managing his own affairs, while the former are filled with parental solicitude, which is often a disguise for love of power. Parents consider, usually, that the various moral problems which arise in adolescence are peculiarly their province. The opinions they express, however, are so dogmatic that the young seldom confide in them, and usually go their own way in secret. It cannot be said, therefore, that at this stage most parents are much use.
|
(本館) 
(トップ) 
(分館)
