I read this article in the New York Times last week and can’t seem to get it out of my head. It shocked me. Preschoolers in Surgery for a Mouthful of Cavities touched a sore spot for me (forgive the pun) after my eldest son recently had two cavities filled in the dentist’s chair the old fashioned way. I felt like a failure of a mother having a five year old with two cavities. My guilt was soon quelled after speaking to a very caring dental staff who assured me that my son’s tooth decay was only minorly impacted by his diet, but was rather the effect of genetically weak enamel. Whew! Watching him have his work done was hard for me – it’s hard to watch one’s loved ones have pain inflicted on them. It’s even harder to explain to a child why you are allowing that pain to be inflicted.

All this has been swirling around in my head and then this article appeared in the New York Times. Unbelievably, it says that preschoolers are coming to the dentist with 6 to 10 cavities at once, for the most part because of diet and here’s the kicker: because their parents won’t enforce brushing. Apparently my generation of parents panders to their children so much that even brushing is negotiable. As Betty Barry once said, “Not in my house!” Come on, forcing your kid to brush his teeth twice, swish with a little Sponge Bob ACT, and maybe just maybe help him floss is that difficult?

Equally shocking to me as the statistics in the NYT article was a few years back I stumbled on Lynne Griffin’s book, Negotiation Generation after hearing her do a reading at Grub Street. Griffin’s book is a manual of sorts to get Gen-Xers off their dumpers and into the real role of parenting. Negotiation in parenting, according to Griffin, is a huge problem for Generation X parents as my generation tends to want to be friend first, parent second. She urges parents to “take back your parental authority without punishment”. Perhaps a copy of this book should be handed out to each pre-schooler’s parent whose child needs to undergo general anesthesia for dental work.

As a believer in manifesting ones destiny through “think it and it will be” mentality, I was intrigued by this radio cast today on NPR’s “On Point”. The hour-long segment, “Will Innovation Save Us” discusses how the growing capacity to provide basic needs for all citizens of the earth will bring us to an age of abundance and give people time for innovation and creativity.

As the mother of two young children, I choose to think that the future will be bright. (Indeed, I feel that I had to have faith in that in order to choose to have children.) My kids will live in and contribute to a world that is nothing that I can imagine — much the same way that my grandmother could not imagine the idea of her granddaughter using a smartphone and a laptop.

The discussion on this topic reminds me of the book, “The Rise of the Creative Class” and a recent segment on PBS’s show, “Maria Hinojosa”,  featuring Anand Giridharadas. Both the book and the interview offer the idea that it’s the creativity of the U.S. that makes and will make it great. I was struck by Giridharadas’ comment that although China and India are rising powers in the world economy, they have not brought to market the innovations that the U.S. has brought. Giridharadas goes as far as to attribute this to the great schools of higher education in the U.S. that no other country has and that people from around the world come to take part in. These schools create areas of thinking that is unmatched and cannot be artificially created.

As we embark on the next Presidential election here in the U.S. education will surely be discussed and revised. I only hope it is for the best and that endowments to the arts and sciences continue under the incoming President’s watch so that our innovators and future innovators are allowed to follow their course.

Here’s to education and the continual rise of the creative class! If we think it, it will be.