國家教育研究院

　　本文旨在探討父母與兒童之間複雜繁瑣的親子互動關係。達爾文主義從社會生物學的觀點觀察人類親子之間的互動，說明兒童雖然與生俱來擁有與父母相同、可以適應未來社會的基因，但在生理與心理上仍然屬於一種尚未開化的生物，需要由父母與社會資源給予養育、教育與薰陶，才能進一步成長為一個完全成熟的人。這樣的觀點受到後殖民論述者批判，他們認為將兒童視為一個毫無權力基礎，需要成人加以控制、管理才得以培育成人的個體，這樣的觀點必須破除。在這兩個觀點交互作用之下，兒童一方面被視為一個弱小的動物、應該被剝奪權力、好好被撫育成長；另一方面又希望能將之迅速教育，使他們習得許多成長技能，以便早日適應未來的社會，變成一位完完全全的成人。在這樣思維的錯亂之下，兒童與父母都處於這兩種理論的拉扯與競爭之中。父母時而板起臉孔，以一個絕對擁有權力的成人控管兒童；卻又時而學習兒童幼稚的思維與語言來和幼兒對話、溝通。兒童一方面從毫無自生能力的弱小形體開始奪得父母毫無保留的愛，卻也一方面老成的懂得跟手足之間競爭父母的關愛、好吃的食物，並懂得利用拒食、拒服從、拒睡、拒排泄等等的生物本能來使得父母緊張、妥協，以取得某些所欲的權力。

　　This article is aimed at exploring the complicated interaction between parents and children. According to Darwinism, which looked at parent-child interaction from the perspective of social biology, even though children are born with the same genes as their parents that enable them to adapt to the future society, they are still deemed physically and mentally underdeveloped creatures that need the nurture and education from their parents and social resources to grow to be a mature individual. This viewpoint is criticized by post-colonialists who think it necessary to discard the idea that children are powerless individuals who need the reins and control of adults to grow. Under the influence of these two points of view, children are regarded as impotent animals that should be deprived of power and taken good care of while on the other hand, they are rushed through education to learn a great many skills for growing in the hope that they can adjust themselves to the future society as soon as possible and become mature adults.Both children and parents are greatly influenced by the tug-of-war between the two theories. Sometimes parents, as adults with absolute power, scowl at children and keep a tight rein on them while at times they talk or communicate with their children with the childish language learned from their toddlers. Weak and dependent individuals as they are, children easily win parents’ unconditional love and they also wily enough to compete with their siblings for their parents’ care and love or for delicious food. They also are clever enough to resort to such inherent instincts as refusing to eat, obey, sleep and defecate to wring what they want from their worried parents.