Margaret Wente's Snowflake Children

Margaret Wente’s globe and mail article on the plight of “today’s children being overly protected from failure that they’ll never be able to handle the stresses of the adult world” is a highly opinionated and suspect take on how “reality will soon bite” (par. 22) a seemingly oblivious and obnoxious generation composed of “snowflake children” (par. 23), due to “overprotective” (par. 7) and “rescuing” (par. 8) parents who are “stuck to them like glue” (par. 16). While Wente does make an effectively emotional (almost convincing) appeal, the article falls flat for Wente as she lends a voice to “prejudice” and construes a “black-and-white” way of thinking throughout “without acknowledging any gray areas” (Prinsen 4) whereby lacking any rational …show more content…
This is the clearest as she goes on to talk about the “average” child (par. 16) where “each one is a unique and special individual whose ego and talents must be nurtured like a hothouse flower so that she 'll reach her full potential” (par. 17) and where “there’s also a good chance that her parents will still be as heavily involved as ever - guiding, advising, applauding and doing everything they can to protect their little snowflake from any sense of failure or rejection” (par. 7). It is not so much the reasoning behind Wente 's remarks that arguably evoke an immediate response from the reader, but rather “the words on the page than just their literal meaning” (Prinsen 3) that strikes us the most. By evoking the reader’s response to her use of realism and “highly emotional language” and “condescending” speech (Prinsen 2-3), the author has best positioned herself to present her contentious view in a way that is both thought-provoking and controversial, to say the least, leaving behind an immediate emotional response from the …show more content…
The light bulb moment came when Wente makes the puzzling remark to a parent about his child graduating from nursery school, "Since when do nursery schools have graduation ceremonies?" (par. 3). This commentary shows not only the author 's inability to relate to the discourse being had but also her failure to properly weigh in on a subject she knows little about, let alone give commentary on. Another interesting point worth mentioning is Wente belonging to a distinct generation where “when baby-boomer kids were young, there were so many of us that we were nothing special. Our parents never told us how exceptional we were. They would never have dreamed of complaining to the principal if we flunked math. They yelled at us instead” (par. 15). This not only shows Wente’s inability to relate to this new generation of “snowflake children” (par. 23) due to her lack of having any personal experience with kids but also due to a distinct generation gap where she is unable to relate to this audience from a social-economic context, as