None of this is remotely acceptable. We raise children so they can become like us. What are we? Depends on time, place and circumstance, all of which are in constant flux.

How or why regular human interaction gradually adjusts children to adulthood is a subject about which our most accurate asessment is that we know next to nothing.

If there is one path down which civilization as we know it may cease to exist, it starts here. All it takes is one generation of feral children. We will be celebrating increases in literacy and standardized test scores before we finally notice and it is too late.

Words escape me.