| Sumario: | This article examines the idea that the soul of the child today is under siege. Many factors including the ersosion of the boundaries that separate adulthood and childhood have contributed to this. The ideals of childhood shape not only treatment of children, but one's inner lives and sensibilities as adults. Central to these deals is the notion that childhood is a special province of life, a time reserved for play, education, exploration of nature, exercise of imagination and moral and civic development. To the degree that consumer society transforms and undermines these ideals, the formative project of shaping communal and civic lives is eroded. Children are used to sell products and are treated as products, as objects to manipulate.
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