The Age of Leverage

"Manners should never be taught. If a child of seven wants to eat with his fingers, he should be free to do so. No child should ever be asked to behave in a certain way, so that Aunt Mary will approve. Sacrifice all the relations and neighbors in the world rather than stunt a child for life by making him behave insincerely. Manners come of themselves. No child should be forced to say "Thank you". Quote from 'Summerhill-A Radical Approach to Child Rearing' by A.S. Neill

I am fascinated by the concept of 'leverage'. Entrepreneurs and investors speak of it as a way of describing the traction and forward progression of one idea or project into another, more meaningful idea or project.

Websters dictionary describes leverage as follows:

le·ver·age: def.
1 : the action of a lever or the mechanical advantage gained by it

2 : power, effectiveness (i.e.,trying to gain more political leverage)

3 : the use of credit to enhance one's speculative capacity

When communicating with one of my patients, it is important that I try to appeal to reason and to engage that person so as to promote my ideas for their treatment or to explain the answer to their questions. I am not only not making my bid for leverage but also attempting a conversion in the mind of the patient to affect a certain end. To use a football metaphor, the football team will never create leverage for their team to advance to the Playoffs if they cannot convert enough first downs on the field to score touchdowns and win games. It does not matter how great the team or an individual player is if they cannot convert and then leverage these conversions into success. Doctors should always attempt even the smallest conversions and keep on moving forward until they have helped the patient to leverage their own health and wellness.

This is a picture of my Dad who has just used a fishing pole to leverage a really big fish from the ocean. He is hanging on with his hand so that the waves do not tip the boat to leverage him out of the boat and into the water. In this example, the fish is not going to be going to the Playoffs. My Dad has managed to convert his fishing efforts into twelve tasty fish dinners so he has, in effect won the tournament and will advance to...the kitchen. Now you understand the concepts of leverage and conversion. Or at least you will if you have ever gone fishing...

In the quote in the beginning of this blog entry, A.S. Neill has expressed his opinions about the harm which can come to children forced to learn and practice basic manners. In Neill's opinion, imposing the guidelines of acceptable social behavior actually stifles the child's normal capacity to create his or her own ability to apply leverage. Children who are forced to conform are less capable of learning the skills needed to express themselves to others as adults. Fearlessness, self actualization and intuition are skills that cannot be taught but must be developed through life experience. Parents who generate real life situations for their children in which the child is able to face their fears and experience courage and in which a child will be allowed to interact with an authority figure and communicate their own wants and needs will be doing their children a great service. This is a philosophy of practical parenting called 'concerted cultivation'. Prodding a child into rote recital of a series of culturally acceptable responses and actions is not an effective way of helping them to develop intuition, courage and fearlessness. Prompting and scripting also does not teach a child to look an authority figure in the eye and tell that person what they think. In order to develop the skills to get what we want from life we need to be self assured, self reliant and not intimidated by authority.

Introduction to the Summerhill School:

This remarkable school in Leiston, England runs under a true children's government where the "bosses" are the children themselves. Summerhill opened in 1921 and is described as "the world's greatest experiment in bestowing unstinted love and approvel on children. Children are taught that freedom is not the same as license and that healthy human development makes it necessary that a child eventually cut the primary ties which connect him with his father and mother and learn to face the world as an individual."