But childhood prolonged, cannot remain a fairyland. It becomes a hell.

But childhood prolonged, cannot remain a fairyland. It becomes a hell.

Don't take up a man's time talking about the smartness of your children; he wants to talk to you about read more

Don't take up a man's time talking about the smartness of your children; he wants to talk to you about the smartness of his children.

A society in which adults are estranged from the world of children, and often from their own childhood, tends to read more

A society in which adults are estranged from the world of children, and often from their own childhood, tends to hear children's speech only as a foreign language, or as a lie. Children have been treated. as congenital fibbers, fakers and fantasisers.

It might sound a paradoxical thing to say --for surely never has a generation of children occupied more sheer hours read more

It might sound a paradoxical thing to say --for surely never has a generation of children occupied more sheer hours of parental time --but the truth is that we neglected you. We allowed you a charade of trivial freedoms in order to avoid making those impositions on you that are in the end both the training ground and proving ground for true independence. We pronounced you strong when you were still weak in order to avoid the struggles with you that would have fed your true strength. We proclaimed you sound when you were foolish in order to avoid taking part in the long, slow, slogging effort that is the only route to genuine maturity of mind and feeling. Thus, it was no small anomaly of your growing up that while you were the most indulged generation, you were also in many ways the most abandoned to your own meager devices by those into whose safe-keeping you had been given.

Children have more need of models than of critics.

Children have more need of models than of critics.

Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new read more

Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.

Let me go to hell, that's all I ask, and go on cursing them there, and them look down and read more

Let me go to hell, that's all I ask, and go on cursing them there, and them look down and hear me, that might take some of the shine off their bliss.

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. read more

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. [Proverbs 22:15].

Children are our most valuable natural resource.

Children are our most valuable natural resource.