Let’s be upfront about it: Tom Giles, CT’s project editor who researched and wrote this issue’s lead news story about a controversial parenting curriculum, is unmarried and childless. One is reminded of the old story about the newly licensed psychologist who had no children but three theories about childrearing. Ten years later, he had three children and no theories.
To write about a wide variety of topics, news reporters learn to learn fast. A hunger for information is a basic requirement of the journalist’s profession. Reporters soon learn to call experts and to use library resources to give themselves a quick orientation to a subject. In addition, a reporter covering a complex or controversial story must talk and listen to many people. (For this story, Tom conducted over 60 interviews.)
Among the subjects Tom has had to dig into in his work for CT are global population, gambling addiction, Latin American church growth, and now, for this story, breast-feeding.
Tom is, however, no stranger to children. A warm-hearted volunteer, he has taught preschoolers in Sunday school, tutored children of single parents through his church, and been a YMCA day-camp counselor. He also regularly babysits two preschool children of a single parent employed at CTi.
Isn’t it strange that our society requires more preparation for a driver’s license than for a marriage license? And we require even less of those who choose to become parents. Someday, God willing, Tom will be a parent. And reporting this story, we believe, will have given him a good start toward becoming a great parent.
DAVID NEFF, Executive Editor
