Parents: Keep Out!

This is Hidden Brain.

I'm Shankar Vedantam.

(instrumental music plays) A plane goes down somewhere in the Pacific.

The survivors stranded on a deserted island are a group of school boys.

At first, they celebrate their new-found escape from adult supervision playing on the beach.

Then they organize.

They elect one of the boys, Ralph, as their chief.

Ralph and several others get a fire going, but soon the boys begin resisting Ralph's efforts to lead them.

The boys assigned to watch over the fire get distracted, and the fire goes out.

They become paranoid and stoke each other's fears of a beast they're convinced is stalking the island.

They split into warring factions and begin attacking one another.

Three of them die.

This is the story told in the 1954 novel Lord of the Flies.

It was written by an English school teacher named William Golding, and it reflected his harsh view of humans in general, and children in particular.

The novel ends when a British naval officer lands on the island and finds the children in a ragged, feral state.

The novel entered the cultural consciousness as a warning.

Without rules, systems, and adult supervision, children left alone would descend into chaos.

As with many generalizations, there is some truth to this.

A multitude of studies suggest kids thrive when they have stability.

Chaotic and unpredictable environments can bring out the worst in us.

But today we explore whether many societies have taken William Golding's warning too much to heart.

If some supervision of children is a good thing, lots of parents, teachers, and school administrators seem to think more is always better.

When more is less and less is more, this week on Hidden Brain.