There's something exuberant and unrestrained about children. They have an enthusiasm for life that we tend to lose as we grow older. They have a sense that anything is possible. As adults, we admire children's childish enthusiasm. But it seems that we also tend to encourage the kids to outgrow it.

Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman, a few years ago, wrote these wise words: "We raise our children with ethical time bombs, built-in disillusionment alarms. We allow our children their ideals until they are perhaps 13 or 15 or 18 or 22. But if they …