"All we can do when we think of kids today is think of more hours of school, earlier age at the computer, and curfews. Who would want to grow up in that world?"
About this Quote
The line lands like a diagnosis disguised as a complaint: adults have mistaken childhood for a risk-management project. Hillman isn’t nostalgically pining for some sepia-toned past; he’s indicting a cultural reflex that meets every anxiety about “kids today” with more structure, more surveillance, more productivity. His trio of fixes - longer school hours, earlier computer use, stricter curfews - reads like a checklist of institutional comfort, not child development. Each item soothes adult fear (falling behind, being unsafe, being uncompetitive) while quietly shrinking the territory where a self can form.
Hillman’s subtext is archetypal and psychological: childhood needs room for the irrational, the unoptimized, the unsupervised. When we replace that with schedules and screens, we don’t just steal time; we reshape imagination. “Earlier age at the computer” is especially pointed. It’s not anti-technology so much as anti-premature adulthood: a world of metrics, constant input, and performative identity arriving before the kid has a private interior life to protect.
The rhetorical question is the twist of the knife. It forces the listener to realize that the supposed reforms are not gifts but burdens - adult solutions to adult unease. In the late 20th century, as schooling intensified and digital life moved from novelty to necessity, Hillman saw a civilization training children to be compliant workers and vigilant consumers, then acting surprised when they seem less free. The question isn’t about whether kids can adapt; it’s whether we’ve made a world worth adapting to.
Hillman’s subtext is archetypal and psychological: childhood needs room for the irrational, the unoptimized, the unsupervised. When we replace that with schedules and screens, we don’t just steal time; we reshape imagination. “Earlier age at the computer” is especially pointed. It’s not anti-technology so much as anti-premature adulthood: a world of metrics, constant input, and performative identity arriving before the kid has a private interior life to protect.
The rhetorical question is the twist of the knife. It forces the listener to realize that the supposed reforms are not gifts but burdens - adult solutions to adult unease. In the late 20th century, as schooling intensified and digital life moved from novelty to necessity, Hillman saw a civilization training children to be compliant workers and vigilant consumers, then acting surprised when they seem less free. The question isn’t about whether kids can adapt; it’s whether we’ve made a world worth adapting to.
Quote Details
| Topic | Youth |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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