I've been thinking about all of this for several days, and it has seemed to me that nestled within this discussion is the notion of scarcity; that is, that certain approaches to helping our children learn and grow are driven by the idea that various resources are scarce (elite preschool spaces, selective university admissions, particular kinds of job opportunities, and so on), and that these specific resources are those which are necessary for our children ultimately to have a satisfying adult existence.
Obviously, one needs for certain basic resources (food, warmth, shelter, love) not to be scarce, but I wonder if it would be interesting/useful/thought-provoking to reframe some of these other questions in terms of abundance rather than scarcity? Certainly it would seem to me to be potentially both very freeing as well as conducive to creativity to view life as offering an abundance of possibility; what could our school/work/hobbies/parenting look like if we embraced a vision of bountiful opportunity? What could our kids' lives look like?
