Liberation's Children
Parents and Kids in a Postmodern Age

By Kay S. Hymowitz

Review by Travis K. McSherley

America's children have never had it so easy. Growing up in the age of PlayStation, Internet and Starbucks, today's generation live with technology and convenience that is a universe away from the childhoods of their parents and grandparents.

Yet in Liberation's Children, Kay Hymowitz knifes through all the luxuries of the American child to discover that the values of this age have created a huge chasm of emptiness -- where the soul once resided.

"These are strange times to be growing up in America," Hymowitz observes. "A mere twenty years ago, who could have imagined a world where nine-month-olds use computers, ten-year-olds dress like Las Vegas showgirls, and high schoolers pass through halls with armed guards."

This is perhaps the high price required for the freedom that we've bestowed upon the youngest Americans. Many parents have chosen to use the many tools available to train mini-adults rather than to raise balanced children. But the tutors they select are often ill-qualified to instill a solid foundation of truth in the hearts of their progeny.

For example, when kids are fed a steady media diet pretty much from day one -- with a lot of inane junk in the mix -- it's no wonder that they seem to no longer perceive a difference between fantasy and the "real world." Before they are prepared for it, our kids discover a world of grown-up opportunity. High culture gives its approval, saying "anything goes," and many child "experts" applaud the autonomy offered to both child and parent.

"The same forces that have liberated today's kids from want, settled life paths, and confining traditions have also 'freed' them from the moral and spiritual guidance that has always come from parents, teachers, and the culture at large," Hymowitz notes. "The result is not that today's kids 'have no values,' as pundits often tell us. On the contrary: American children develop Victorian-size superegos dedicated to the command to realize themselves through work."

Hymowitz's commentary is a jolting dissection of many of the elements that dominate the lives of kids today. Liberation's Children, of which each chapter is an essay by Hymowitz, provides a chronology of sorts of what could be the life of a typical American child, from birth to breakdown.

The critique begins with an examination of the pressures and issues involved in day care and early education -- a set of concerns that burdens parents (mothers in particular) as much as their youngsters. Despite the lauding of questionable research, these environments provide substantially insufficient teaching, emphasizing knowledge above virtue. Even the heaven-sent TV program Sesame Street pounds young minds with load upon load of information in a pop-cultured package, minus the moral values and intellectual depth that used to be instilled by Mom and Dad.

And the cultural influence only gets worse as kids transition into adolescence, as Hymowitz describes in detailed fashion. Thanks in part to MTV and its glitzy role models like Britney Spears and Tom Green, boys and girls begin to experiment and make soul- and body-altering lifestyle choices before they're old enough to understand either. This independence results in kids who grow up faster (though arguably less completely) than ever before.

Hymowitz writes, "In my conversations with educators and child psychologists who work primarily with middle-class kids nationwide, two major and fairly predictable themes emerged: a sexualized and glitzy media-driven marketplace and absentee parents."

This loss of innocence is the most tragic casualty of the laissez-faire lifestyle of the 21st century. Hymowitz paints a vivid, though disturbing, image of the sacrifice made to set our kids "free."

"In short," she says, "liberation's children live in a culture that frees the mind and soul by emptying them."

Needless to say, a child with an empty soul grows up to be an adult with an empty soul. As cases in point, Hymowitz looks at the lack of substance in today's college curricula and the excessively communal atmosphere present in many white-collar workplaces. In the midst of it all, the concept of love is obscured to be meaningless.

But Hymowitz concludes her study by offering the glimmer of hope that many families are beginning to reject the complex, postmodern society that we've created in favor of simpler and more intimate lives. The collapse of the radical feminist movement serves as one clear sign that a rebellion may be underway.

Liberation's Children is a humbling, often discouraging, portrayal of the lives of American youth. The essays are wonderfully written, though some might argue that they are overly critical of media and academia. Certainly not every parent will relate to the issues and experiences that Hymowitz details. Nevertheless, we are all well served to be mindful of the factors at work in American culture. Especially when the souls of our children are at stake.

Travis K. McSherley, a 2003 graduate of Anderson University in Indiana, lives near Washington, D.C., and serves as online editor for IWF.org. He is also editor of a Christian Webzine, Filling up Space.