Extra Credit Questions

[L Verge]

(03-02-2019 11:53 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  "President Abraham Lincoln chose how to raise his child Tad." - I said that in my second to last sentence, didn't I?
Here it goes again: "It's OK, it was the Lincolns' policy and matter, and they consequently had to deal with it." And they could afford it (having Tad not up to contest).

Your "reply" is also no reply to my question you quote right before. (The question was how Tad would have developed under the conditions Lincoln had to face, and with zero financial background.) I guess you also know it wasn't Lincoln's wish that Robert went to Harvard. Robert's motivation however was intrinsic.

I think President Abraham Lincoln slapped Robert on the inaugural trip when he missed to watch the inaugural address. (I wonder if Tad had accomplished that better but doubt he had gotten slapped if not.) I also think there was a scene with a reception where Robert queued as a "guest" and Lincoln lost his temper.

So, if all kids were raised as laissez-faire as Tad and showed the same lack of working attitude, skills and discipline, please tell me what the world would look like.

Eva - the former school teacher in me (and this is from years ago, decades of experience then, and interaction with thousands of children both in schools and now at the museum) makes me take your side instinctively. I suspect that David - if we put him in a classroom with ten students of Tad's ilk - would resign after the first week or two. I would have labeled Tad a possible problem child on the first day of school (and I often did just that while teaching). My problem became that I was so good at calming the beasts and making them interested in learning that I got stuck with other teachers' problems!

As for Robert, while I'm sure he would not be a dear friend of mine, I feel sorry for him. He grew to manhood while his father was either away from home riding circuit or away from home politicking. Meanwhile, he's dealing with an erratic mother and partially raising three little brothers.

And, you can't tell me that he did not feel the pressure of attending Harvard to please his father and mother - this while Tad is allowed free reign, especially after Willie's death. Even his being granted dispensation from REAL military service must have grated on his nerves while knowing that so many other young men were out there dying in a war that thousands blamed on his father.

As I said before, I suspect the family was dysfunctional. We can only hope that Tad was growing into a dignified and caring person before death took him at such an early age. I would even be hesitant to judge his last year, when I suspect that illness was "slowing him down."