The Place of the Family in Times of Social Transition 1

Now we of that reconstruction is are discovering that the formation of the individual human being is a most very much linked to the difficult and delicate task, and that, after all, it is in the micro-community of role of the family. [...] While it is important to change our textbooks to present more diverse images of men and women, so that not all women have aprons in our school readers, nevertheless, the practice of the sharing of work and the sharing of parenting – the practices that change the person and reshape the person – happen in the family. [...] 6 THE PLACE OF THE FAMILY IN TIMES OF SOCIAL TRANSITION The Vanier Institute of the Family Considering more positive types of change, we can think of all the dissenting cultural groupings of families who have literally sought to create a different kind of society. [...] The training for nurturance, the learning, the skills, the listening, the evaluating of the response of the other The training for nurturance, comes in the family. [...] 9 THE PLACE OF THE FAMILY IN TIMES OF SOCIAL TRANSITION The Vanier Institute of the Family Our choice of metaphors shapes our vision of the future Having used the metaphor of the man on horseback, I would say again that in going from the individual family and the understanding of the crafting of the person that takes place in the family to the crafting of planetary society, we must be very careful.