Gentle Whip

Can't children be trusted to build their own destinies? Should we push them toward success at any cost? Sometimes it ends in neuroses, broken lives, passivity, and a loss of will to live-drugs and alcohol, as well as suicides, both direct and indirect, in staggering numbers. No one counts the square miles of children's cemeteries.



Children blindly believe their parents when told that the world is dangerous and survival depends on doing exactly as they're told. They end up serving their parents' anxiety and vanity instead of living by their own choices. The parental concept is: children can't be trusted with their own fate-they're lazy, irrational, they need the whip.



This neurosis begins as early as preschool and kindergarten, sometimes by the age of two. Children are pushed to develop early, to keep up, to feel constant guilt and fear of being a failure. They're forced to grow up before their time, severing their connection with their own feelings and desires-and destroying their belief in themselves.



Children who grow like weeds often achieve more-especially in places where parental social status matters less.