I put much faith in the child's innate ability to grow; emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Unless deprived of the most important elements through development, children continueally reinforce their self esteem, confidence, and enthusiasm. If we do not interfere, they will become powerfull, imune to advertising, peer presure, or dependencies. They will grasp responcibilities willingly and anctiously take control of their lives.

In a natural society, the child's developement follows the path ordaned by instinct, an "A Priori" continuation of our genetic heritage. The developement plan which enabled us to survive in the cave, is still at the base of our feelings.

But we don't live in a cave, and people do interfere with the child's natural developement. This society and well meaning parents rear children to act in "appropriate" civilized ways. We nievely repress the "inner" mechanism which evolved over millions of years, to instill the latest man made sensativities or moral interpretations. With little thought, most bring up children as others do, as they have themselves been brought up, and none of us understand the human nature we are manipulating. Children loose their enthusiasm, their curiosity, and they adapt the despair and lifelessness of adults. We call this maturity.

I beleive that back in the cave, we enjoyed a sort of contentment, a mental health we can't imagine. Many Children died from the hardships, but there were no suicides. Primitive cultures often used drugs, but there was no abuse. Something has gone terribly wrong, but we can not just blame politicians or churches or bad luck or Capitalism.

There is a Zen saying: "Eat when your hungry, sleep when your tired." What a simple and peaceful message. But it is all too complicated today they say. We should not expect to wake without coffee, sleep without tranquilizers, digest without antacids, socialize without alchihol. So who is served by this unnatural complexity? How is it that we have built a world so hostle to human life?

There is an alternative. We must stop this estrangement of humanity, stop donating our own children to the machine. We must surrendering the chauvinistic fantasy of man made knowledge and relearn nature's plan. We have lost touch with ourselves, but each child is born uninfected, with nature's plan intact. We must learn from them!

We can stop putting children on schedules from the moment of birth! We can stop abandoning them to cry through the night. We can stop toilet training with coercion and perverted images of dirty and bad.

Parents, preoccupied with their own pettiness, have no patience with kids who are messy, kids who ask questions, kids who wish not to be ignored. "No" is one of the first words spoken, because it is the one most used by Mom and Dad and so goes the power struggle most families engage in.

Then comes school and it's more coercion, sudden and excess competition, the stifling of young bodies in stiff chairs all day, the stifling of curious minds with painfully boring regimen.

All of these assaults are a result of mankind's arrogant belief that we are superior, we are Gods, we challenge nature! And so we take the nature out of our children, we take their sole!

So I don't worry about violence or sex on TV, I worry about preserving freedom and dignity in children while everyone else is busy stealing it away. I don't presume to know what is best for them, because after my 33 years of philosophy and psychology, I've come to accept that they know more than I. They are born to know themselves, to be at peace with themselves. I trust their innate intelligence and goodness.

To censor the child's input distorts, even deceives. I detest much of what there is for our children to see on TV, but I will not hide it. I instead try always to explain, to set a better example, to expose the lies, to respect them and the nature around us. I must face squarely my deepest fears and ugliness. I must help my child face them too.

Some think TV, many toys, books, etc. are roadblocks to normal healthy development. I say they are only distractions, ones we adults would rather not deal with. We do not help them by hiding the ugliness of the world, by pretending there is no violence or no hatred. Such leaves them without the tools to deal with those realities which must someday impose themselves. We help by couteracting such exposure through our example, our reassurance, our composure. It has always been that surpression of evil has made it stronger. By hiding things we make them provocative, like sex and drugs.