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Ten Ways To Destroy The Imagination Of Your Child

Ten Ways To Destroy The Imagination Of Your Child

Author: Anthony Esolen

This book was ok at best. I was curious at the concept. I generally agreed with a number of the points by the author in concept, but I think he went a little far. Here were his ten chapters:

  1. Keep Your Children Indoors as Much as Possible, or, They Used to Call It “Air” (Discourages exposure to nature and outdoor freedom.)
  2. Never Leave Children to Themselves, or, If Only We Had a Committee (Emphasizes constant adult supervision and lack of independent play.)
  3. Keep Children Away from Machines and Machinists, or, All Unauthorized Personnel Prohibited (Limits hands-on interaction with tools, mechanics, and real-world work.)
  4. Replace the Fairy Tale with Political Clichés and Fads, or, Vote Early and Often (Substitutes imaginative stories with ideological or trendy content.)
  5. Cast Aspersions upon the Heroic and Patriotic, or, We Are All Traitors Now (Undermines admiration for heroes and national pride.)
  6. Cut All Heroes Down to Size, or, Pottering with the Puny (Diminishes heroic ideals by focusing on the ordinary or flawed.)
  7. Reduce All Talk of Love to Narcissism and Sex, or, Insert Tab A into Slot B (Reduces love to mere physicality or self-centeredness.)
  8. Level Distinctions Between Man and Woman, or, Spay and Geld (Blurs or erases gender differences.)
  9. Distract with the Shallow and Unreal, or, The Kingdom of Noise (Fills time with superficial entertainment, screens, and distractions.)
  10. Deny the Transcendent, or, Fix Above the Heads of Men the Lowest Ceiling of All (Rejects higher spiritual or metaphysical realities, limiting wonder.)

My problem with the book is the author basically felt like he was this old man grumbling that the world isn’t like it was when he was a child. I imagine he was a kid in “The Sandlot” era, where kids ran around outside all day long with no parental supervision, and played baseball all day long, and that is what he thinks every kids experience should be. He literally talks about playing baseball in at least one of his chapters.