It's an interesting essay. Its complaints about kids are right on the money. I was a child like that, and to this day I still find myself getting the baby fat trimmed off my ego once in a while. The kids I teach in middle school today are even worse, and teachers are all but powerless to deflate them, at least not without grave consequences for their careers.
Part of the responsibility of the critic, however, is to suggest a model superior to the one s/he is currently criticizing. "Kinderarchy" reads more like a litany of complaints tinted with nostalgia for past times, and capped off with the lazy, quasi-historicist conclusion that things will just have to work themselves out. As a parent with three kids who are all still in their formative years, I find that less than satisfying.
I agree that the essay is long on complaints and short on solutions. But sometimes it's good to be able to at least notice what, exactly, the problem is. Then one can begin to come up with solutions. I mean, I enjoy reading to my daughter and playing with her, but at the same time, she's on my schedule -- I'm not on hers. I think she's going to appreciate that too -- having a parent instead of a playmate.
2 comments:
It's an interesting essay. Its complaints about kids are right on the money. I was a child like that, and to this day I still find myself getting the baby fat trimmed off my ego once in a while. The kids I teach in middle school today are even worse, and teachers are all but powerless to deflate them, at least not without grave consequences for their careers.
Part of the responsibility of the critic, however, is to suggest a model superior to the one s/he is currently criticizing. "Kinderarchy" reads more like a litany of complaints tinted with nostalgia for past times, and capped off with the lazy, quasi-historicist conclusion that things will just have to work themselves out. As a parent with three kids who are all still in their formative years, I find that less than satisfying.
I agree that the essay is long on complaints and short on solutions. But sometimes it's good to be able to at least notice what, exactly, the problem is. Then one can begin to come up with solutions. I mean, I enjoy reading to my daughter and playing with her, but at the same time, she's on my schedule -- I'm not on hers. I think she's going to appreciate that too -- having a parent instead of a playmate.
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