Liberation's Children : Parents and Kids in a Postmodern Age

Rating:
Summary: A good scolding from a tough
Review: Hymowitz's collection of essays has not received the attention that it deserves. This is too bad, because it is a powerful scolding the the laissez-faire, "modern," "child-centered," "feminist you-can-have-it-all," day-care and sex-education society that has little moral wisdom to pass to its children. Her observations on how "experts" have caved into what she calls the "Americal Pastorale Child" motif are apt, and acidic. Her fundamental axiom is this: that all (good) child development depends on a transmitted morality based on self-denial and self-discipline. The only way to achieve these is not to depend on the "inherent" capacity of children to develop these, but, instead, on powerful, care-giving, available adult(s) who decline to take shortcuts, and who take moral stands in their lives.

I loved a number of sections of this book. Hymowitz dissects Sesame Street elegantly as a public TV enterprise that teaches kids to watch TV, not learn literacy. She points out that it is a paradox to teach children and adolescents to be free and also to have self-restraint. She takes exception to the "expert" view that children and adolescents "naturally" develop empathy: "And why are well-nurtured teenagers so lacking this natural feeling when it comes to the suffering that their flagrant rudeness causes their parents?" (p. 61).

Great book, a little hard to read casually, but her message is not a casual one. After you finish it, however, you may wonder, "Well, what do I do now?"

Rating:
Summary: Right on target
Review: Ms. Hymowitz cuts through today's cultural morass and pinpoints exactly where we are going wrong with today's achievement-oriented but emotionally vacuous and valueless children. From French lessons for six-month olders to starstruck Sesame Street, from desensitizing sex education for middle schoolers to college without distribution requirements, Ms. Hymowitz shows us how today's children are groping for values in a world that promotes work over family and self-expression over love. For anyone perturbed by today's degenerative culture, this profoundly disturbing and incisive book is a must-read.

Rating:
Summary: The Educational Importance of Cultural and Moral Traditions
Review: This book contains a collection of eleven essays written by Kay Hymowitz and which originally appeared in CITY JOURNAL between 1995 and 2002. The subtitle captures the essence of the common subject matter thread which provides the link between them, they are about the relationship of PARENTS AND KIDS IN A POSTMODERN AGE. The essays in the book are arranged to form a sequential analysis of her topic following the age of children from their early experiences in day-care through graduation from college (essay number nine is titled J. CREW U.) and subsequently into a career; they conclude with an examination of the frequent rejection of the goals of radical feminism by many young women today. However, the dates of original publication indicate a much less direct progression of the author's thought process and commentary, they appear to be a combination of responses to her own experiences and research, reactions to the topic du jour and pieces specifically complementing other commentary from the Manhattan Institute (the publishers of City Journal)

My experience is that pieces in collections of this nature are often uneven in quality, but these are uniformly very articulate and well reasoned commentaries by an extremely thoughtful author with a very definite point of view. That point of view can be summarized as a belief that our culture has largely lost its moral moorings, and that we have no intellectual and spiritual base of agreed upon beliefs with which to educate our children. She examines the basis of the elevation of moral relativism and our unwillingness to articulate a framework of absolute values, and concludes that it is due to the several factors but places much of the blame upon the destructive impact caused by the embrace of postmodernism by large segments of the intellectual elite and media opinion leaders (as exemplified by the adoption of deconstructionist philosophy and methodologies in the curriculums of many leading academic institutions). This has both combined with and reinforced the pursuit of goals predominantly measured in material terms, and has often led to extremely counterproductive results even with the best of intentions. (In this regard her criticisms of day care for the wealthy and Sesame Street are fascinating.)

There is a lot in these critiques that is about as far removed from political correctness as possible, and yet at the same time Hymowitz has probably managed to include some comment in the book which will probably distress even her most ardent supporters. I certainly agreed with the overwhelming majority of her points and enjoyed her style immensely, but on occasion felt her commentary slightly offpoint or her analysis somewhat overbroad (e.g. the chapter on ecstatic capitalism). Regardless of your beliefs regarding our cultural childrearing practices, there is clearly reason to be concerned about the education (in the broadest sense) of our youngsters today. While the Columbine tragedy clearly caught the attention of the nation, the problem is not violence per se but what the prevalence of such violence indicates about the frequent alienation exhibited by the youth of today. The debates about the almost certain overprescription of Ritalin, the abysmal performance of many segments of the population on standardized tests, and the elevation of the goals of diversity and multiculturalism have led to the perverse equation of the freedom which we cherish with the lack of necessity for any internal moral compass. Somehow we as a society have not accepted the fact that the greater the freedom in a society, the greater is the need for a firm personal internalization of the agreed upon moral precepts and shared cultural values which are necessary for the society to effectively function.

I highly recommend this book for everyone interested in accumulating background intellectual ammunition in order to more effectively participate in the current debate about society's educational and childrearing practices. After all, there is nothing more important to maintaining the opportunity, freedom and prosperity which we currently enjoy.

Tucker Andersen