The New Yorker of 2nd July, p 76 had an interesting article on American children and their dependance on their parents, at all ages. The article begins by telling the story that an anthropologist at UCLA observed while living with an indigenous tribe in the Peruvian Amazon. I won’t give it away, in the event you will read it. But it illustrated the subsequent question: how independent are American children of their parents? After reading the article, I began to notice more clearly, the age of children being wheeled in strollers. It struck me that some of these children should be walking, and that the wheeling was because the parents had an agenda that perhaps precluded the extra time needed for children to amble at their slower pace. It set me to thinking. What were these children learning about their own self-reliance, to say nothing of the development of the leg muscles and total physical well being that comes from the simple act of walking? In the suburban life style, it is more clearly demonstrated by the use of the car. Just a thought.