To most children money has a love symbolism: Uncle Bill gives
me a quarter; Aunt Margaret gives me a dollar; therefore,
Auntie loves me more than Uncle Bill does. Parents uncon-
sciously know this; and too often, they spoil the child by giv-
ing him too much. As a compensation, the unloved child very
often gets the biggest allowance.

None of us can escape the money valuation in life. It is forced
upon us everywhere. We sit in the orchestra or we sit in the bal-
cony. Our children go to private camps or spend the summer
in the city parks. Money values are a danger to every one of us.

A mother will cry, half in jest, "I wouldn't sell my child for
all the gold in the world," and five minutes later, she will
spank her child for breaking a ten-cent cup. It is the money
value that is at the root of so much discipline in the home. Don't
touch that--that having cost money.

Too often children are balanced against money--but only
children, not adults. My mother used to spank us if we broke a
plate; but when father broke a plate, it was just an accident.

Parents give their children much anxiety about money. Far
too often have I heard a child cry in dismay, "I've dropped my
watch and broken it. What will Mommy say? I'll be scared to
tell her."

Occasionally, one sees the opposite mechanism. I have seen a
boy or a girl break things deliberately as a hate reaction against
home: "I'll make my parents, who don't love me, pay for it.
Won't they be wild when Neill sends in the bill?"

Some Summerhill parents send their children too much,
some too little. This has always been a problem to me, one that

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