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In a curious way, there is a distinct continuity between colonial America's notion of what children ought to be like and our present-day "enlightened" and "emancipated" notion. The Puritans saw evil everywhere, not excluding the minds of children. A child who obeyed his parents and spoke tactfully and courteously was a child whose behavior attested to his parents' Christian virtues. The parents had recognized sin in their boys and girls and fought it (relatively) and subdued it (mostly). By the same token, today's parents also strive hard to be found among the elect. That includes those who have read their Spock (in revolutionary days it was the philosopher John Locke who had all kinds of advice about child rearing) and have sought out the best psychological methods or techniques for handling their young children, the best "learning environments" for educating them—and having done so, been found winners. The children of these elect "cope" well, "adapt" well, are able to assert themselves without "anxiety," get along with others without too much "frustration." In both instances one detects at least a thread or two of Utopian thinking. Whether it be prayer and Christian piety or psychological "insight" and the "sensitivity" that is offered in "groups" or by individual experts, the point is to apply what one has been trying to obtain (God's grace, a psychiatrist's knowledge) to children. Thereby one builds something that lasts longer than a particular lifetime: the "New Jerusalem" or the "better, happier world" that several generations of people have hoped to build here in America.