I’m going to revise my earlier statement regarding a synopsis. In
reality, I will mostly be quoting the sentences or ideas that struck me
at first pass and writing some commentary on the quotes. With most
books when I read them, some things stand out the first time around.
But in many cases, I have reread a book a few times and noticed
different things during each reading.
“(This book) is about the institution of modern childhood,
the attitudes, customs, and laws that define and locate children in
modern life and determine to a large degree what their lives are like
and how we, their elders, treat them.” (P. 17)
I have arrived at the point that whenever I encounter the word
institution, I mentally shudder. Since I am already at odds with a
number of ways in which our society typically treats children. It looks
like I am going to like this book.
“For a long time it never occurred to me to question this institution.” (P. 17)
(Sigh) Me too. It is better late than never. Through questioning this
and other institutions, much of the world, as I formerly knew it,
unraveled.
“…if we are going to make a society and world in which
people will be not only able to live but also glad to live, and in
which the act of living will of itself make them more wise,
responsible, and competent, then, there are some things that we must
learn to do very differently.”
This conclusion is something that I tend to believe many home educating
parents have discovered on their own. In some ways, that conclusion is
virtually inevitable to any home educator who does do things
differently. That does not rule out the ability to go on denying it.
“The point is not to worry about what is possible but to do what we can.” (P. 22)
The thing I often find discouraging in many of the work environments
I’ve been in is that any current problems tend to be fuel for a vision
for the future. Often current problems are ignored or endured in favour
of some grandiose plan which will take forever to implement.
I am not embarrassed to say that I am generally at odds with those
solutions. I am a very results oriented guy. I get things done. If
something is broken, my main concern is with finding out what is wrong
with it and what I need to do to get it fixed. There is time for
meetings and adjusting visions & plans after that is done.
For years, I blamed this on the marketing driven economy. But now I
wonder if I shouldn’t be blaming the marketing driven economy on the
principle of causality.
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