It is again one of the roughly six times a year when we’re treated to the special kind of bad advice and dysfunction in the Pearl family. Yes, they’ve published the latest No Greater Joy magazine – Debi and Michael Pearl. Here I have to question how much of Michael’s intellect came back from his stroke because he’s throwing shade on city dwelling parents are ruining their children.

It starts off with Michael sharing ancient memories from when he was a boy and his father brought home all the leftover paint and construction geegaws from his job. He apparently let Michael Pearl build whatever struck his boyish fancy, and now Michael thinks that is the only way to raise boys who do not go off the farm. Give them piles of rusty nails, scrap lumber and whatnot and stand back as they build ramps for their hoop and stick games, or crude proto skateboards.

Michael’s father also left a 15 year old boy alone all summer to build a rock wall. A rock wall, something that takes time, skill and experience to do. Apparently there was a steep learning curve, but it never occurred to Michael to ditch the building, hitchhike into the five and dime and order a cherry phosphate and loiter about looking at comic books. Horsing around reading Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang.

There is nothing more than Michael sounds like in this piece than an updated Professor Harold Hill from the movie “The Music Man” in his description of the horrors of kids not put to work:

Oh noes!~ Of all the evils he lists voting Democrat?

This is just one big old crazy pile of nonsense fear-mongering going on with Michael Pearl. I’m reminded of the Clint Eastwood character in the film “Grand Torino” telling those crazy Vietnamese kids to stay off his lawn (while talking to a chair, of course!) But it gets worse.

The problem with Michael’s assumptions about Mennonites that can also be applied to the Amish is that it is very false. Their boys are no less likely to fritter away time, listen to rap music, use drugs or anything else Michael can dream up. Just Google up ‘Rumspringa’ sometime. There has even been many of those same problems Michael is yammering on about in the Mennonite communities too.

It’s not all praying and cheerfully chopping wood either!

Then Mr. Pearl’s secret hatred/disdain is revealed. It’s for all those gosh darn city folks what work in offices and don’t have the boys do hard labor at all. Michael stops just short of calling city living sinful, but not by much. One gets the feeling if Michael found himself in Hooterville with Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor he’d be tossing rocks at the fancy big city lawyer right before he started torturing Arnold the pig.

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