Destroying the Imagination of Your Child

Sickly Sweet Odour of Chlorine

"With a similar wise disdain for freedom, the Tormentarians [modern parents] have multiplied their "after school exercises."  What all children once did on their own, without adults to manage their movements, now relatively few do, under strict supervision.  Parents themselves have taken their cue from the schools, and enlist their young charges in all kinds of drills: for dance or music or gymnastics or martial arts, until the schedule for a typical Tormentarian tot resembles the day's lineup for the executive of a large corporation. 

"You may not, in Tormentaria, look up at the stars at night because you enjoy doing so; but you'll be admired and envied if your parents convey you to an Astronomy course, wherein you will do very little looking at stars and a lot of riding in a car, answering "present", looking at greaseboard drawings, and waiting in line to peer though a telescope. 

"You may not, in Tormentaria, run off with your pals (boys only) to some swimming hole to strip naked and jump in and swim like happy fools.
  But you'll be admired and envied if your parents convey you to swimming practice, wherein you will have your weight checked on scales and your fat checked with calipers, your body shaved for streamlining, your times clocked, and your lungs willed with the sickly sweet odor of chlorine.  You may not, in Tormentaria, holler for your friends from the street so that you can argue about which of your idols is the better ballplayer, but you will be admired and envied if your parents convey you to Debate club, where you will sharpen your skills until, it is dearly hoped, you will be recognised by one of the Tormentarian Universities.  Indeed, everything you do as a child must be geared--I use the word "geared" deliberately--towards that resume which will gain you admission to Higher Blunting, followed by Prestigious Work, followed by retirement and death."

Anthony Esolen, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child (ISI Books: Wilmington, Delaware, 2010) p. 53f.