It used to take a village to raise a child. That is obsolete. Now the central government, mainstream media and other children of the same age do the job.
As well-depicted in Lord of the Flies, youngsters don’t do a good job of raising kids of the same age. Yet our society segregates its children by age from 5-years-old until adulthood. No big brother’s nearby to bonk the bullies on the head. No neighbors to help head off bad behavior. No older kids to steer younger ones away from stupid moves.
One quarter of their formative years passively accepting and regurgitating lessons purported to be true and valuable. Another quarter passively absorbing flashing images and scripts from one of the six media monopolies. A major chunk of the third quarter reinforcing the lessons, and concept that The State is in charge of their lives. And in the fourth quarter they get to sleep … ah, at last the mind is free.
We are students of words; we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing. — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Do you honestly believe that THIS ONE MODEL is the best imaginable way to raise each and every INDIVIDUAL child?
Cranking out of this factory are a whole lot of messed-up kids and adults without moral compass or sense of purpose. Yet few of us challenge the perfection of this monoculture.
Other than the sleeping part, the pie chart of my youth little resembles that one. Perhaps the results aren’t what you would choose for your or anyone else’s child.
Once again, one-size-fits-all fits none.