Comments on: Open Thread – Libertarian Response To Klingon Upbringing

By: Carol

Carol — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:44:56 +0000

I have a distinct advantage in that I know d’Armond Speers, his wife, and his son quite well. As it happens, d’Armond is also certified in sign language through a two-year post-graduate program at Northeastern in Boston. That’s on top of his degree in psychology and Master’s and doctorate in linguistics.

I assure you all, the boy and the family are well-adjusted, well-traveled, well-read, and creative. The wife is a nurse with an M.A. from the top-notch school of Nursing at Emery. d’Armond plays the violin. The son’s poetry appears in his school year book. Each of them does volunteer work for their community. They are a great, suburban family.

By: tmana

tmana — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:09:09 +0000

From what I got from the article, it sounds like the parent was using his child as an experimental subject to learn more about language acquisition. As such he was a fully-informed guardian.

In this case the child was reared bilingually but with a definite split: Dad spoke Klingon, Mom spoke English. This actually provides a bit more compartmentalization than a polyglot environment in which all parties speak all common languages to, and around, the child. (The youngest son of some family friends was raised in this sort of environment. He was slow to start speaking, but once he did, he was able to speak English, French, and Arabic — and compartmentalize them correctly, to the correct audience.)

By: Joe Haynes

Joe Haynes — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:51:18 +0000

No different than when I was teaching my kids sign language before bedtime. Now all my oldest speaks is XBox and Halo 3. Who knew?

By: VRB

VRB — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:05:54 +0000

Brad,
As a parent your self, I don’t think it that difficult to know when one has crossed the line, no matter what your political philosophy. Even those who abuse children are in denial, they know.

In most instances there is not enough care or interest taken for children who are being abused. Too many children wind up dead. Where I live the state doesn’t have the resources to worry about a child learning Klingon as a first language, it can’t cover the needs of children who are being severely beaten, sexual abused, prostituted or being starved,

There are mistakes parents make or a child is born into dysfunctional environment, which would not be considered abusive, but might severely impact the child’s life. I would consider question 2 to fall in this category.

By: Joshua Holmes

Joshua Holmes — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:46:07 +0000

I’ve read about the case before. The child reached the age of 3 and asked why he and Dad had a special way of talking. The Dad ceased. There’s no indication that the child was not also learning English.

I’m not sure where the line of abuse is, but I don’t think “bilingualism in a conlang” quite reaches it.