> While I might quibble with the parenting technique because I believe an interest in useful topics can be cultivated, I'm not going to knock those parents for

> While I might quibble with the parenting technique because I believe an interest in useful topics can be cultivated, I'm not going to knock those parents for developing the ability to do hard work. The rest of the world is better off with these kids becoming competent professionals due to parental control than it would be if they became wastrels due to parental neglect or encouragement to pursue useless hobbies. In the US at least, the much larger problem is the latter. I think that's a very optimistic view of the outcome of this sort of thing, although it could be that I just didn't describe the parental behavior well. This wasn't parenting telling their kids "hard work is worth it!", but parents who decided on the specific honors that their child would achieve, and would permit no deviation from the path, as a result of which most of these kids either burned out before achieving their goal, or rebelled, usually in self-destructive ways, as soon as they were given a little freedom from parental control. Different parenting styles work for different people, but for me (as a child in the US in the '80s) I think that my parents did the best possible thing, which was to instill in me lessons about the value and importance of hard work, but to make it clear that, in the end, the decision about whether I would pursue those values was up to me. It probably helped that, despite the many other advantages I enjoyed, my family was insufficiently well off to represent a guaranteed financial fallback for me, so that I knew that, one way or the other, I'd have to make my way in the world—which made it particularly appealing to me to be able to find a way to earn my keep by working hard for something I loved.