CHAPTER 4: The DEMOCRATIC (R)EVOLUTION We are better than we realize we are. For the first time, we can now create institutions of governance that elicit our best. Copyright 2026 by Paul L. LaClair
Value for Tuesday of Week 14 in the season of Sowing
Guiding
To guide, to teach, to re-direct, to discipline – these may not be as satisfying emotionally as comforting but when properly done, they are essential.
- Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction. [attributed to Anne Sullivan]
- Democracy cannot survive without the guidance of a creative minority. [attributed to Harlan Stone]
Guidance is to the intellect what comfort is to the emotions. None of us is perfect. The wisest elder can profit from the guidance of others. Done with a little kindness, guidance, like comfort, also conveys a message that others care about us.
“Adolescents need support and guidance to promote healthy behavioral decisions and development.” “Parents play a pivotal role in supporting cognitive development, and facilitating their child’s success in school . . .” Parental guidance is key to child development.
Real
True Narratives
I am glad to take you by the hand and lead you along an untrodden way into a world where the hand is supreme. But at the very outset we encounter a difficulty. You are so accustomed to light, I fear you will stumble when I try to guide you through the land of darkness and silence. The blind are not supposed to be the best of guides. Still, though I cannot warrant not to lose you, I promise that you shall not be led into fire or water, or fall into a deep pit. If you will follow me patiently, you will find that "there's a sound so fine, nothing lives 'twixt it and silence," and that there is more meant in things than meets the eye. [Helen Keller, The World I Live In (1907), chapter I, “The Seeing Hand”.]
Narratives:
- Joshua Kendall, First Dads: Parenting and Politics From George Washington to Barack Obama (Grand Central Publishing, 2016): “How can anyone combine such a brutally demanding job with being a good father? And what does each president’s fitness for parenthood reveal about his fitness to run our country?”
Technical and Analytical Readings
On parenting:
- Matthew R. Sanders & Alina Morawska, eds., Handbook of Parenting and Child Development Across the Lifespan (Springer, 2018).
- Laura Choate, Swimming Upstream: Parenting Girls for Resilience in a Toxic Culture (Oxford University Press, 2016).
- Paul Sunseri, Gentle Parenting Reimagined: How to Make It Work with Oppositional and Defiant Kids (Routledge, 2024).
- Tracy Ford Inman & Jana Kirchner, Parenting Gifted Children 101: An Introduction to Gifted Kids and Their Needs (Routledge, 2021).
- Jennifer L. Jolly , Donald J. Treffinger & Tracy Ford Inman, Parenting Gifted Children: The Authoritative Guide From the National Association for Gifted Children (Routledge, 2021).
- James W. Forgan & Mary Anne Richey, Raising Girls With ADHD: Secrets for Parenting Healthy, Happy Daughters (Routledge, 2nd edition, 2024).
- Keri Weed, Jody S Nicholson & Jaelyn R. Farris, Teen Pregnancy and Parenting: Rethinking the Myths and Misperceptions (Routledge, 2015).
- Susan Bögels & Kathleen Restifo, Mindful Parenting: A Guide for Mental Health Practitioners (Springer, 2014).
- Oana A. A. David & Raymond DiGiuseppe, The Rational Positive Parenting Program (Springer, 2016).
- Jennifer Senior, All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood (Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers, 2014): is it all about the child?
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Poetry
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Ravi Shankar brought Indian classical music to the West. Here is a link to his playlists, and here are:
- Performing Raga Bhimpalasi live at Monterey International Pop Festival (27’)
- Live at his home in 1969: Kaunsi Kanada (28’)
- Live at his home in 1969: Raga Bihag (39’)
- Raga Tilak Kamod, recorded at the Town House in London (38’)
- Live in 1978, with Alla Rakha (46’)
- Live in 1987, in Patras, Greece (61’)
- Live at Carnegie Hall in 1982, with Ali Akbar Khan (56’)
- Live in San Francisco (album) ()
- Live in concert with Ali Akbar Khan in San Francisco in 1984 (190’)
Compositions:
- Alexander Glazunov, Piano Concerto No. 1 in F minor, Op. 92 (1911) (approx. 28-31’) (list of recorded performances): close emulation of themes characterizes this concerto.
- Friedrich Gernsheim, Piano Quartet No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 6 (1865) (approx. 32’)
- Gerald Finzi, Violin Concerto, Op. posth. (1928) (approx. 19-20’): “Finzi’s Violin Concerto owes much to the models by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and Ernest Bloch.”
- Giacomo Puccini, Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) (1917) (approx. 51-66’) (libretto) (list of recorded performances): In this opera, Catholic guilt is taken to an extreme. A young woman has become a nun after giving birth to a child, unmarried, seven years earlier. She relinquishes her inheritance, thinking the child is dead, and kills herself, thinking she will join him in heaven. She has forgotten that suicide is a mortal sin. The theme here is misguidance. Performances are conducted by Bonynge, Maazel, Gardelli, Spanjaard and unidentified conductor.
Albums:
- Matthew Shipp Quartet, “Pastoral Composure” (2000) (48’) “plays out like a well-written history of jazz. Traces of everything from Duke Ellington to Miles Davis to more recent jazz innovators like Peter Brotzmann and Evan Parker echo throughout.”
- Roy Mor, “After the Real Thing” (2021) (58’): “An impressively diverse album that borrows from both the Israeli and American musical traditions and which represents a good snapshot of Mor’s musical influences and of his musical journey thus far.”
- Isabelle Faust, “Johann Sebastian Bach - Sonatas for Violin and Continuo” (2025) (61’): Faust’s virtuosity and exemplary style, paired with the supporting instruments, make the performance sound like a masterful teaching session. “. . . throughout this programme, we are treated to Bach duo-playing of exemplary engagement and purring quality.”
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, “Teach Your Children” (lyrics)
- Cat Stevens, “Father and Son” (lyrics)
Visual Arts
- Norman Rockwell, A Tough One
- Arshile Gorky, How My Mother's Embroidered Apron Unfolds in My Life (1944)
- Norman Rockwell, Outward Bound (1927)
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Piano Lesson (1889)
- Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Education of the Virgin (late 1770s)
- William Hogarth, Surrounded by Artists and Professors (1732-34)
- Ferdinand Bol, David's Dying Charge to Solomon (1643)
