Into the Wardrobe

Thanks, Rusmeister--I live to serve. (Audible snort from those who really know me.)

I really do think that the conditions under which modern children are being raised in much of the West today will, before the Face of God, finally be recognized as some of the most horrific forms of child abuse ever conceived by the mind of postlapsarian man. But that's just me.

It's definitely true that overindulging children is abusive too and we do have a tendency to do that in our culture. Not everyone of course but some people.

Re: the discussion on chickens...

I grew up on a mini-farm in Amish country, USA. We had chickens, turkeys, rabbits, pigs, goats, cats, dogs, guinea hens, etc., etc.! My dad slaughtered the chickens by chopping off their heads, and then he would line them up on the shelf in the lower barn and say he was taking a head count . When we slaughtered the turkeys my sister and I had the job of dipping the decapitated bodies into boiling water (you hold on to the feet) and then plucking the feathers.

And those are just a few of the stories we told our friends to properly shock and horrify them . (They are true, btw.)

We also lived next to an old cemetery and spent many happy evenings playing "Ghost in the Graveyard" (IN the graveyard) and hide-and-seek. Many people nowadays would find that to be morbid, but we never stopped playing long enough to properly appreciate the horror of tombstones.

I'm not traumatized. I had a very rich childhood, and enjoyed chicken and turkey dinners as they deserved. Actually my siblings and I have turned out far better than most of our "city slicker" friends, for various reasons. I think some of that has to do with our parents never thinking twice about letting us see life (and death). We were better prepared to deal with reality when it did come.

rusmeister, have you ever read Politically Correct Bedtime Stories? I can't remember the author right now, but he re-writes all the fairy tales according to our modern tastes. I'll dig up some quotes from it; they're priceless :)

Yes, I have read those. I actually have both the original and the sequel.
Again, John Taylor Gatto's work is definitive on how this came to be in our society. I read his stuff after 7 years of teaching, half of which in public schools, and acquiring my certificate. It was like a lightning flash across a dark field at night that lit up and explained the whole insane landscape.
(Edit - I should explain that most people don't realize how insane it is. You have to actually work in a public - preferably high - school for several years, seeing what kids, teachers and administrators actually do when they're not putting up a public face to the parents, and see what the kids can actually do in terms of performance. Many people have opinions on what to do about schools, but if you haven't seen the INNER workings and the results in large numbers of kids your opinion is not informed. Granted that private schools can often do better, although teachers get paid only about 2/3 of public pay scales in the US.)

Definitely read Gatto's speeches - they're available free online, fairly short and at least the 1st parts of Dumbing Down and his Underground History of Education (the latter is available via his website online).

Of course, the real solution to all of that is Christianity - education is only one (very big) symptom.