Institutions, Individuality, and Our Children

An institution, by design, is a way to shape a large group of individuals into the same mold. The same techniques, routines, and behavior are expected and required of each person in the group. What's good for the average is enforced for the whole. It's a factory method used in the mass production of people.

Institutions, however, are no place for placing every child in our society. Childhood, by nature and design, is a time for finding out the individual talents and style that make us unique. Nurturing that kind of growth requires and environment that encourages flexibility, exploration, and responsiveness (i.e. parents and home).

The institutionalizing of children, whether in the form of daycare, preschool, or public school is by no means the IDEAL method of encouraging the growth and development of a healthy individual sense of uniqueness.

Does anyone believe that orphanage is superior to a family is rearing children? Not yet, thankfully. But what is really the difference between an orphanage and full-time daycare? Nothing more than a few hours at night. Yet so many parents today perceive daycare centers as being superior to their own parental care of children. I'm shocked at the number of parents who take toddlers to daycare, not even because they have to work, but because they believe it is the BEST place for their child. Propaganda has them convinced of the educational and social advantages of placing a 4, 3, 2, or 1-year-old in an institutionalized setting.

Over the past century, this attitude has seeped in and prevailed in terms of school for older children, but now it continues to trickle down to younger and younger children.

Even at-home parents will begin to feel that their child is whisked from one institution to another as he goes from hospital at birth to preschool at age 3. Yes, prepare to fill out homeschooling forms if you prefer that your 3-year-old spend his days catching bugs and playing in the sand. Mandatory preschool is looming and will do even more to change the face of childhood in America. Already, 3 and 4 year olds across the country are expected to sit in their chair or get put in time-out. They play outside, stand up and sit down, eat and sleep when a schedule dictates. A two hour nap is required and early risers are penalized. This is preschool, regardless of the best intentions of overworked, underpaid caregivers/"teachers". It's simply an institution and must function as such.

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