I figured out the flaw in Taking Children Seriously

First of all, I finished scoring the "I Want" song for MELISANDE this morning. I am thrilled both with the work and with my capability to complete it, and now I get to devote the rest of the year to enjoying the holiday season.

Second of all –

look, if you've been following this blog for a while you know I spent some time reading and thinking about the Taking Children Seriously movement, which seems on the surface to be a solid and logical idea but was something neither Larry or I could take completely seriously (pun intended) because there seemed to be –

well, something –

wrong with it.

I have since figured out what it is.

To quickly recap, Taking Children Seriously proposes that children are just as rational as adults and should therefore be treated as equals. If a child wants to do something, the child should not be thwarted from doing so; if a child and a sibling or parent are in conflict about what should be done, the group should work together to solve the problem and come up with a solution that is better than any of the individual ideas.

This prevents children from disintegrating themselves in order to perform a prescripted behavior, and helps prepare them for a life of intellectual, moral, and creative honesty.

The problem is –

and you may be able to guess it, if you read the previous paragraphs carefully –