"And all the children are above average"

The title is drawn from Garrison Keillor's closing line of his Lake Woebegon monologue on his radio shoe, A Prairie Home Companion. It is apt. . .

A day or two ago, I wrote about Theodore Dalrymple, a physician and prolific author. In that blog, I mentioned three books that I intended to read, one of which was Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality. Indeed, I started my Dalrymple reading with that book which I am now about one-third through.

As if on cue, I then found an article in the UK's Daily Mail reporting on research conducted in the USA (I find it surprising how often the UK press will publish articles on stories largely ignored by the mainstream media here).  The Daily Mail article is entitled How college students think they are more special than EVER: Study reveals rocketing sense of entitlement on U.S. campuses. It encompasses a survey conducted by Jean Twenge, a survey which has been asking US college students to rate themselves since 1996.

And what did Twenge find?  In a word, narcissism. US students are more full of themselves than any time in history. They feel that they are entitled to both opportunity and riches, despite having accomplished absolutely nothing.

Dalrymple would agree, albeit from an English perspective. Sentimentality and a politically correct notion not to criticize anyone - least of all a child - for failing to live up to expectations or meet the grade at school has created a nation of whining, sniveling "I deserve it" monsters.

You can read the Daily Mail article here. Then tell you kid, "no hugs until you get your homework done - and I will check it first for correctness." They don't deserve anything yet except love and discipline. They rest, they earn.