Authoritarian or nurturant parent? It is not so simple. But the

[machiado]

political implications are glaring!

This is a link to a book review of "THE ROAD TO WHATEVER.
Middle-Class Culture and the Crisis of Adolescence"
By Elliott Currie

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12624-2005Feb9.html

excerpt:

"We live, Currie believes, in the age of "the new American Darwinism," a time in which "widespread prosperity in the country as a whole" disguises a deep change in basic American convictions: popular support for "affordable health care and housing, stable and well-paying jobs, well-staffed schools, predictable social benefits" has given way to "rejection of the idea of mutual responsibility, a righteous distaste for offering help, the acceptance or encouragement of a view of life in which a competitive scramble for individual preeminence and comfort is central, the insistence that even the most vulnerable must learn to handle life's difficulties by themselves and that if they cannot it is no one's fault but their own."

This is a bitter indictment of contemporary American society, and perhaps a trifle too generalized -- Currie clearly swings from the left side of the plate and from time to time muddies the clarity of his argument with political or ideological asides -- but public policy and private practice support it. These are not compassionate times, and we are not as generous a people as we have always fancied ourselves to be. We pity the victims of an Asian tsunami and reach deep into our pockets to help them, yet too often we turn our backs on our own children:

"The middle-class world these young people describe is not the stereotyped one of indulgence, overconcern with children's rights and erosion of 'personal responsibility.' On the contrary, it is a world that is remarkably hard on its young -- a world shaped by a careless, self-serving individualism in which real support from parents, teachers, or other adults is rare and punishment and self-righteous exclusion are routine. It is a world that places high expectations for performance on adolescents but does remarkably little to help them do well, a world in which teenagers' emotional problems are too often met with rejection -- or medication -- rather than attentive and respectful engagement."