Childhood.Com

Childhood • Com Child I fear for you. You have We have We make you bored love language mind friends joy. school school school. competitive consumers computer friendly compliant with history democracy doubtful of your worth. We do this in fear of your curiosity and joy: where grass is a rug for trees to dance upon (Susan, age 7). VOL. CXLIX No. 51,333 We are blind to your strengths: If you were the graceful birch we would criticize your immobility. We reduce you to a knowledge count with state tests tests void of numbers for creativity for initiative for citizenship. WHITE HOUSE SEEKS TO CURB PILLS USED TO CALM THE YOUNG RISKS WOULD BE OUTLINED National Study Is Planned-to Look at Effect of Psychiatric Drugs on Preschoolers Education and Culture Summer 2000 Vol. XVI No. 2 2 We see you as imperfect raw to be machined in factory schools: Hours are leaves of life and I am their gardener (S.M., age 11). In t u Interview, Dr. Steven R. Wyman, director of tlie National Institute of Mental Health, Said. "As a rule of thumb, doctors, psychologists and locial worker* iliould attempt to modify the behavior of a child and deal with family criJM before drugs are prescribed." We give you the idols of Market Economics. We fear democracy. We fear the poor may inherit the earth. Child I care for You. Do not bring guns to school. Our World Is Mad Enough. by Dick Gibboney University of Pennsylvania Professor Emeritus of Education 1. Newspaper excerpts from The New York Times, March 20, 2000, pp. A1, A21. 2. Excerpt from "Trees" by Susan Foreman, age 7, and Susan Morrison, untitled, age 11 in Richard Lewis, ed., Miracles: Poems by Children of the English-speaking World (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966), pp. 82, 121. Education and Culture Summer 2000 Vol. XVI No. 2 ...