I read an article in today's New York Times that seems to highlight what's wrong with everything these days. The article written about the end of the best friend, highlights an odd trend among school and camp administrators to break up friendship pairs between kids. These adults prefer that kids hang out in larger groups to avoid excluding anyone. They want kids to forgo the best friend for a larger circle of casual friends. Forgetting that friendships teach us how to pair up romantically, learn about different (and possibly destructive) types of people.

Once again adults are trying to force kids into what they see as the correct behavior. As we limit the free time kids have, decide on their friends, censor their reading, schedule their activities, etc. I wonder what kind of adults are we raising? It's already been shown that the constant flow of information in snippet form is hurting critical thinking skills. What next? 

Personally I hope my son is lucky enough to find a best friend to go through life with. Beyond my wife, I've been blessed with a few very close friends. My dad told me when I was a teenager that I would be lucky if I could count the friendships that would last my life on one hand.  They're few in number but incredibly fulfilling (despite my friends living in other cities). When one of them passed away suddenly last year it was a shock and left a hole in my life.

Why on Earth would we want to deny our kids these strong relationships?