No, no.. no offense taken, and I didn’t mean to imply that there was. Nor do I have a problem with you, or anyone else, being critical of my opinions- that's part and parcel of making them public, after all- I’d just rather the opinions being criticized are the ones I actually hold. I just felt that my original post was being misconstrued. For one thing, I didn’t want to be seen as critical of the BSA.<br><br>I understand your analogy, and I agree… to a large extent, I feel that I was brought up in an environment that was more isolated, protected and sterile than was good for me, and it seems that the problem has gotten generally worse with each generation since. No, kids cannot do the things that were possible generations ago, nor can kids in an urban/suburban environment do the things that kids in a rural environment can. For the most part, I think they'd be better off if they could.<br><br>The post-war, post-Levittown suburban Mom and Dad's Utopia that we built has just never accommodated older kids very well- it wasn’t designed for them, and they come to know that. Before this new environment designed them out of the picture, teenagers were not regarded as a problem, as a group… they weren’t much regarded as a “group” at all. I don't really blame the parents that much. Since the agricultural revolution parents have always been primarily occupied with providing, and now with our reduced standard of living (in real terms) of recent decades, everyone who can work, has to work, just to keep a household going. Still, it’s worth remembering that before WWII, and before we exiled them to vacation or retirement or nursing homes, most families included grandparents that took over a lot of the teaching load. I think that’s a big missing factor.<br><br>On the other hand, the kids themselves are not inherently much different from generation to generation, or from the city to the country. They have the same active, starved minds, and the same curiosity, and that curiosity WILL find ways to be satisfied, sterile environment or no- it’s just that the more sterile the environment, the more ingenuity it will require. Perhaps it’s just my age speaking, but I find the notion of an active, normal boy who hasn’t explored his curiosity as to how something as basic as a knife works by his 13th year.. somewhat unlikely. I’m a bit skeptical, is all. <br>