But the Internet boosts its viability. To the extent free spirits need organization and fellowship, they find kindred souls on the net in the soft glow of a 17-inch monitor, coffee cup by the mousepad. In the long run, Bill Gates may be among a half dozen major influences on religion in the 21st century. Religion is not the only institution swirling in change. The family has pushed its responsibilities onto other institutions, like schools, who are ill equipped to handle new roles.
Issues here are as complex as sex education, or as weird as hygiene.
One blow-off high school class in Oakland County teaches food. It includes detail on the intricacies of measuring cups. But at least kids master measuring cups before moving on to public universities, where high school content is taught. On the face of it, a school with a metal detector and a social worker is a school where parents abandoned parenting. The new millennium is 11 weeks old.