Moving is a trauma. Witnessing the illness of a sibling is a trauma. Competition is a trauma. Unmade beds are a trauma. Being teased is a trauma.
Homework is a trauma.
Because life is so filled with potential assaults on children s psyches, all children are suffering or may soon be suffering. We suffered as well whenever we were hurt, threatened, treated unfairly, or otherwise made to feel unsafe. It is not just some children who are vulnerable, Breggin insists. Contrast Breggin s china doll with Bruer s robust child, as illustrated in his example from rural Guatemala, where children spend the first 18 months of life in circumstances that we would call severely deprived. Nevertheless, these kids perform at the same cognitive level as middle-class American children by the time they reach adolescence.