Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast, where we provide one lesson every single day to help you with your most important job, being a parent.

I'm Ryan Holiday, and I draw these lessons from ancient philosophy, modern psychology, practical wisdom, and insights from parents just like you all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

Don't baby them when it comes to books.

It's interesting to think about the steady decline and expectations for kids when it comes to reading. Not long ago, kids were taught Latin and Greek,

and they were taught Latin and Greek so that they could read the classics in the original.

Think of Aesop's fables. Think of children being read Plutarch's lives by their parents. This is

heavy stuff. When you read old school books, you're struck by a few things. Sure, there's the

racism and historical inaccuracies. But there is also an assumed familiarity with obscure

figures from the ancient world and a willingness to wrestle with morally complex topics.

There is a quote from George Orwell, which dates to the early 20th century,

that accidentally illustrates just how much things have changed.

Modern books for children are rather horrible things, he said,

especially when you see them in the mass.

Personally, I would sooner give a child a copy of

Petronius Arbiter than Peter Pan, but even Barry seems manly and wholesome compared with some of his

later imitators. How many adults even know who Petronius is? He was a writer who lived in the

Court of Nero. And how many adults today probably winced at the idea that a book should teach kids how

to be manly?

Even the idea of wholesome is controversial these days.

It shouldn't surprise us that the children and young adult sections of bookstores these

days are filled with so much infantilizing or absurd nonsense.

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