Gift From the Future

by Dawson Church, PhD

Relationships between parents, children, and society are in the midst of a tectonic shift. Behaviors once thought to be private matters, such as child battery, alcoholism, drug abuse, and spousal abuse, are now considered public matters. Attitudes have changed drastically in just a century. Consider:

  • Just 150 years ago, children “hurriers” in Great Britain were still sent down tiny mine shafts to haul coal wagons up to the surface. Most died early and horrible deaths of black lung disease. The US did not ban child labor until 1938.

  • When my grandfather was born, women in England and the US did not have the right to vote. Women did not get the right to vote until 1920 in the United States and 1928 in England—and not until 1971 in Switzerland!

  • Ten striking workmen were killed by policemen and thirty wounded in Chicago in 1937. Among their outrageous demands? A 40-hour work week. This event is within the memory span of many people still alive today.