Summary:
Clever people who fail academically are not the best parents, a judge has said.

Full article:
'We've all got faults': Mrs Justice Parker, who sits in the . Family Division of the High Court in London, suggested that 'book . learning' was no guarantee of parental success . Intelligence and education do not guarantee good parenting, a senior High Court judge has said. Clever people can make ‘absolutely rotten parents’ and many who fail academically give their children a ‘wonderful upbringing’, Mrs Justice Parker added. In 2006 researchers from Bristol University found social workers had negative attitudes towards parents with learning disabilities – and sometimes broke up loving families with no good reason. Mrs Justice Parker’s warning against assuming the best-educated will make the best parents came during a custody hearing involving a mother with a learning disability. The judge said: ‘Learning disability is not in itself a reason for a parent not looking after a child. ‘Many clever people make absolutely rotten parents and many people who are intellectually impaired … are warm and caring and provide children with a wonderful upbringing. No one is a perfect parent.’ She ruled that the baby in the case should be adopted – not due to his mother’s learning difficulties but because of the ‘emotionally harmful’ effect of his father’s refusal to name him. Judge Parker, who sits at the High Court, pictured, said many people who were 'intellectually impaired' provided children with a 'wonderful upbringing'