“For Americans the contradiction between national ideal and social fact required explanation and correction. Ultimately this contradiction did not lead to the abandonment of the ideal of equal opportunity but rather to its postponement: to the notion of achieving for the next generation what could not be achieved for the current one. And the chief means to this end was a brilliant American invention: universal, free, compulsory public education. This "solution" was especially important for children and families because it gave children a central role in achieving the national ideal.” MeanChildrenImportantEndsFactsNextOpportunitySocialEducationRolesGenerationsAchieveEqualSolutionsIdealsUniversalNotionCurrentsBrilliantInventionChiefsExplanationContradictionNext GenerationAbandonmentCorrectionsPublic EducationEqual OpportunityCompulsoryPostponement Book:All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure Source: All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure
“Within forty years of their arrival in the Plymouth colony, the first white settlers were afraid their children had lost the dedication and religious conviction of the founding generation. Ever since, Americans have looked to the next generation not only with love and solicitude but with a good measure of anxiety, worrying whether they themselves were good parents, fearful that their children would not turn out well.” YearsFirstsWellsChildrenTurnsNextLostParentReligiousWhiteWorryGenerationsAnxietyConvictionFortyParenthoodFearfulDedicationFoundingNext GenerationArrivalsColonyGood ParentSettlersSolicitudePlymouth Book:All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure Source: All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure
“It is misleading to discuss recent changes in family life without emphasizing the fact that for generations some Americans have had to raise children under particularly appalling pressures. Although much of what is worrying American parents is shared by them all, the most grievous problems are those that especially afflict a large minority--the poor, the nonwhite and, in various ways, the parents of handicapped children.” WayChildrenFactsProblemParentPoorWorryGenerationsPressureRaisesVariousMinoritiesFamily LifeMisleadHandicapped Book:All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure Source: All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure
