In a revealing column in Saturday’s Times Gaby Hinsliff lays bare the modern middle class parent’s deepest anxiety – the intelligence of their children.
Interestingly she does not once use the word clever, although the headline writer makes good that deficit. Probably the horror of having a child who grows up to be too clever by half still lurks
This fear drives parents to tuck away their own intelligence & ability to question & grab at anything which promises to give their children the edge – well we all now know, post Olympics, the theory of constant marginal improvement. So, no matter how dodgy the science behind the claims its fish oil, superfoods (organic of course), brain training, music lessons, feeding on demand, Kumon maths all round. Any one of these may provide the critical factor which will make the crucial difference between an Oxbridge degree & having to settle for something less.
Let us hope though that their own parental intelligences have, finally, rejected the junk science that persuaded many such anxious parents that the spectre of autism hovered over the head of their precious baby as the MMR vaccine went in
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