Reflections on Childhood in an Era of Unrest (1983)

I am going to open this seminar by reading to you a conversation I recently had with two boys, aged ten and eleven, in which they described to me a nearly completed block construction. As you will hear, the construction itself, and their interpretation of it, blends together a number of contemporary issues in quite fascinating ways. The narrative portrayal is moving in terms of the boys’ own efforts to cope effectively with issues that are, indeed, the shaping issues of their generation. For reasons that will soon become clear, the transcribed conversation is titled, “The Estate.”