Reddit Reddit reviews Why Johnny Can't Tell Right from Wrong: And What We Can Do About It

We found 5 Reddit comments about Why Johnny Can't Tell Right from Wrong: And What We Can Do About It. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Why Johnny Can't Tell Right from Wrong: And What We Can Do About It
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5 Reddit comments about Why Johnny Can't Tell Right from Wrong: And What We Can Do About It:

u/cdesmoulins · 66 pointsr/UnresolvedMysteries

IIRC the book's titled Why Johnny Can't Tell Right From Wrong by William Kirkpatrick (which I just saw downthread you spotted, sorry!) and everything I can find about it suggests it's a general "kids these days" conservative piece about the need for education reform, not actually about what to do when one of your children is doing bad things. (The name is a riff on Rudolf Flesch's Why Johnny Can't Read, a book advocating educational reform of a different kind.) To quote from its Amazon description:

>A hard-hitting and controversial book, WHY JOHNNY CAN'T TELL RIGHT FROM WRONG will not only open eyes but change minds. America today suffers from unprecedented rates of teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, suicide, and violence. Most of the programs intended to deal with these problems have failed because, according to William Kilpatrick, schools and parents have abandoned the moral teaching they once provided.

In general the books listed (including one by the guy from Focus On The Family!) suggest more that the family was politically/socially conservative, which is consistent with their religious stance to me, rather than being serious self-help books for disturbed children. It doesn't mean Burke (or JonBenet) couldn't have been disturbed or acting out, but I don't think the books are all they were made out to be. The feces seem like a more likely sign of some kind of disturbance to me.

u/time_keepsonslipping · 2 pointsr/UnresolvedMysteries

I have a searing hatred for Kolar for this. Please go look at the actual descriptions of the books. Their titles sound alarming because Kolar misleadingly suggests they're linked to Burke's behavior. In reality, they are completely standard Christian books about raising godly children in a secular world. There is absolutely no reason at all to believe they reflect any violent or alarming behavior on Burke's part if you do anything more than read the titles. Kolar is a shitty investigator or a deliberate liar, as far as I'm concerned.

edit: A long time ago, I wrote out a long comment about each book Kolar lists, but I can't find it. But just off the top of my head, here is one example:

Kolar says "Well, the Ramseys had a book called Why Johnny Can't Tell Right From Wrong." Sounds suspicious, right? Well, here's the book blurb from Amazon:

>A hard-hitting and controversial book, WHY JOHNNY CAN'T TELL RIGHT FROM WRONG will not only open eyes but change minds. America today suffers from unprecedented rates of teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, suicide, and violence. Most of the programs intended to deal with these problems have failed because, according to William Kilpatrick, schools and parents have abandoned the moral teaching they once provided. In WHY JOHNNY CAN'T TELL RIGHT FROM WRONG, Kilpatrick shows how we can correct this problem by providing our youngsters with the stories, models, and inspirations they need in order to lead good lives. He also encourages parents to read to their children and provides an annotated guide to more than 120 books for children and young adults.

The table of contents lists: The Crisis in Moral Education, Drug Education, Sex Education, How Not to Teach Morality, Moral Illiteracy, Vision and Virtue, Music and Morality, and so on. Does that sound like a book about turning your budding-psychopath of a child around? Or does it sound like bog-standard Christian "What do I do about the increasing secularity of American society?" stuff that was prevalent during the '90s? Keep in mind that we know the Ramseys were practicing Christians. It would not be even remotely weird for them to have this kind of book.

Similar arguments can be made about every book Kolar lists. He either did not so much as crack these books open, or he deliberately lied about their contents in order to fit with his theory about Burke. This part of his argument is so egregiously misleading that nothing else he says should be taken at face value, as far as I'm concerned.

u/Plasticfire007 · 2 pointsr/JonBenetRamsey

>This would explain the books found in the Ramsey's home about kids behavioral problems

The Hurried Child--Growing Up Too Fast, by David Elkind

https://www.amazon.com/Hurried-Child-Growing-Fast-Third/dp/0738204412

Dr. David Elkind eloquently called our attention to the dangers of exposing our children to overwhelming pressures, pressures that can lead to a wide range of childhood and teenage crises. Internationally recognized as the voice of reason and compassion, Dr. Elkind showed that in blurring the boundaries of what is age appropriate, by expecting-or imposing-too much too soon, we force our kids to grow up far too fast.

Children at Risk, Dobson/Bauer

https://www.amazon.com/Children-at-Risk-James-Dobson/dp/0849934141

In this hard-hitting and empowering book, James Dobson and Gary Bauer expose the cultural forces endangering today's children and show what you can do to defend your family, your faith and your traditional values.

Why Johnny Can't Tell Right From Wrong, Kilpatrick

https://www.amazon.com/Johnny-Cant-Tell-Right-Wrong/dp/0671870734

America today suffers from unprecedented rates of teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, suicide, and violence. Most of the programs intended to deal with these problems have failed because, according to William Kilpatrick, schools and parents have abandoned the moral teaching they once provided.

>his toileting issues

A former nanny who got paid by the tabloid that carried the story, gave an account of BR smearing feces on a bathroom wall during PR's first bout with cancer, years before the murder.

u/TapedeckNinja · 1 pointr/Browns

Why Johnny Can't Tell Right from Wrong.

Although, seriously, if he can't tell right from wrong then that probably is a symptom of real mental illness.