Children of widely different ages playing together are a wonderful but increasingly rare sight. I strongly agree that age segregation within schools is a big part of the problem. But in a sense it’s a subset of what I’m talking about on the scale of the whole culture. I’m not advocating a return rigid to social ritual or an overly formal system—say, the Masai cattle raid or even the Scouts. But something must be found to fill the gap. Groups and subgroups of teenagers are left to make do in a system that merely tries to keep them together, under control—and obediently consuming junk. And the rest of us end up with a social system that mirrors High School instead of schools that reflect society as a whole.
Children of widely different ages playing together are a wonderful but increasingly rare sight. I strongly agree that age segregation within schools is a big part of the problem. But in a sense it’s a subset of what I’m talking about on the scale of the whole culture. I’m not advocating a return rigid to social ritual or an overly formal system—say, the Masai cattle raid or even the Scouts. But something must be found to fill the gap. Groups and subgroups of teenagers are left to make do in a system that merely tries to keep them together, under control—and obediently consuming junk. And the rest of us end up with a social system that mirrors High School instead of schools that reflect society as a whole.