We attempt to remember our collective American childhood, the way it was, but what we often remember is a combination of real past, pieces reshaped by bitterness and love, and, of course, the video past--the portrayals of family life on such television programs as "Leave it to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best" and all the rest.
Richard LouvThe physical exercise and emotional stretching that children enjoy in unorganized play is more varied and less time-bound than is found in organized sports. Playtimeโespecially unstructured, imaginative, exploratory playโis increasingly recognized as an essential component of wholesome child development.
Richard LouvNature introduces children to the ideaโto the knowingโthat they are not alone in this world, and that realities and dimensions exist alongside their own.
Richard LouvI do not mean to imply that the good old days were perfect. But the institutions and structure--the web--of society needed reform,not demolition. To have cut the institutional and community strands without replacing them with new ones proved to be a form of abuse to one generation and to the next. For so many Americans, the tragedy was not in dreaming that life could be better; the tragedy was that the dreaming ended.
Richard Louv