Years ago, when Hillary Clinton was the First Lady of the United States, she wrote a book titled, “It Takes a Village.” The book took its name from an old African saying (“it takes a village to raise a child”).

The book was popular with her supporters. She used the book as a platform to promote her own ultra-liberal views of public policy. For instance, Mrs. Clinton favored universal health care and universal pre-kindergarten. In her view, the village was merely the federal government taking on the role of guardian.

The idea of the entire community participating in the raising of children is fundamental. Everybody knows this on some level.

Many of us remember the kindly police officer who assisted us when as kids we wandered too far from home.

We remember, as well, neighbors who watched over us from kitchen windows while we played in the streets. A new study suggests that kids who watch too many hours of TV are prone to anti-social behavior.

Does this news come as a surprise?

It shouldn’t.

Television programming these days serves as instruction as how to raise a smart-aleck kid. Even during prime time the programming is awful. Nobody likes a smart-aleck kid. And yet the TV producers feed the young and impressionable a steady diet of that kind of content.

Back in the day, the adults in charge of television programming knew that wholesome programming would not encourage anti-social behavior. Sure the programming was simplistic. The story lines were familiar. But the programs did not undercut the parents’ best efforts to raise up children properly.

That is not the case today. Too often the producers of programs offer slick shows that seek to be hip.

They care not a whit whether the shows they put their names upon encourage wholesome child development. They are just motivated by ratings, by the almighty dollar.

We had a village years ago raising us up as children. Adults were in charge, and although they didn’t know us or our families, they knew that programming that encouraged good values was proper viewing.

Yes, it does take a village (actually a community) to raise up children properly. We don’t need a federal nanny state, though, as much as we need adults who don’t go out of their way to lead the young astray.

Robert Peele

Rocky Mount