Many months ago, I gave a Physician friend of mine who lives in another state, a copy of our book titled Unstructured Time. Just looking at the title and the cover of us feral kids in the corn patch, he picked up on the message in the book quickly. The message being that kids develop best when they are governed by some basic principles of honesty and integrity, but then left on their own to solve the problems they encounter.
Then, with a very thoughtful expression on his face, he went on to tell about one of his patients who was an author of a book on child development along the lines opposite of that in the book on unstructured time. She then went on to tell about her daughter and the medical problems her daughter has experienced. It became apparent to my friend that the mother, unknowingly, was the cause of her daughters problems.
When this happens, its difficult to correct, so its better to avoid the problem by proper care of children when they are in the most susceptible years. Nature works wonders.
