Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Where Helicopter Childhoods May Lead


Pratik Chougule explores whether American childhood will create an authoritarian society. An excerpt:

Hard numbers illustrate these trends:
  • The amount of free time school-aged children enjoyed plummeted from 40 percent in the early 1980s to 25 percent by the mid 1990s.
  • The time young children spend in school jumped from 5-6 hours in the early 1980s to almost 7 hours beginning in the early 2000s.
  • By 2006, some 40 percent of schools had either eliminated recess or were considering doing so.

2 comments:

Kurt Harden said...

"More so than any other factor—identity, religiosity, income etc.—it was voters’ attitudes on childrearing that predicted their support for Trump. Those who believe that is more important for children to be respectful rather than independent; obedient over self-reliant; well-behaved more than considerate; and well-mannered versus curious, were more than two and a half times as likely to support Trump than those with the opposite preferences."

Are respectful and independent opposites? Obedience and self-reliance? Who came up with these false dichotomies?

Michael Wade said...

Kurt,

I have the same reservations. It has whiffs of Grad Schoolism.

Michael