Once it was assumed that adults and especially parents has at least some of the answers and a serious role to play in the molding of a child into an adult. Today, the conventional wisdom is that the child has all the answers and that adults are, at best, a facilitator but often an impediment on the road to self-discovery for the child. Adults now are now to nourish the child's self- esteem. In this age, self-expression is more important than slavish adherence to rules. One-third of the students at the nation's colleges require remedial instruction in reading, writing, or math.
Children do, however, get first-rate sex education and they're able learners.
In the end, society gets the children it deserves. An American society that decides to let kids raise themselves gets an MTV and Gap generation. If it is an adolescent's right to wear a NAZI symbol to class, we might get Columbine. The solution many cry is gun control but only a few years ago, boys could bring their hunting rifles to class and go hunting after school. The bottom line of all of this is that culture has bought the lie that children are basically good and society is evil.