On "The Parent Lottery"

“…my mother took us to the circus. I wanted to go again when I was nine. … ‘You don’t need to go’… ‘You have already been to the circus.’ … It sounds oppressive by today’s standards, but it was actually a magical childhood. I really do see myself as a guy who had this incredible leg up in life because I had a mother and a father who got so many things right.” – The Parent Lottery

By reading these sentences, I don’t agree with author’s parents’ perspective and disallowance for going to circus. His parents regard the circus as the fun place where is nothing helpful for his child. Rather, they consider their child should follow their rules and moral lesson by nurturing him perfectly. Children are endowed with imagination and creativity. With these two elements, their brains can be trained by applying imaginative thinking to learn things. Firstly, the acrobatic performances circus makes children feel happy for seeing lots of wonders and feel full of amazement. Naturally, it not only broadens their knowledge for knowing animals or acrobatic acts but also increases their imagination by themselves. Secondly, when we go to some places twice, we might have other new ideas coming out of our minds because sometimes we feel differently as we go the same places each time. This feeling helps us recreate some thinking or ideas little by little. Seen in this light, why can’t a child go to the circus once more? The authors’ parents merely do what they consider good for their child but lack the importance for children’s endowment in learning happily.