Abby Sunderland & Conventional Wisdom on the Capabilities & Quests of Youth | Lefty Parent

Abby Sunderland & Conventional Wisdom on the Capabilities & Quests of Youth | Lefty Parent

Abby Sunderland & Conventional Wisdom on the Capabilities & Quests of Youth

by Cooper Zale

Abby Sunderland

So should Abby Sunderland have attempted to sail around the world? Should her parents have let her? I’m sure plenty of people will argue endlessly, many on camera for news shows seeking high viewership ratings, of the particulars of this case of Abby’s age, her judgment, her family’s judgment, and her parents’ responsibility in their role as stewards.

I am more concerned about the “spin”, and the reinforcement of the prevailing conventional wisdom about the limits of the agency of youth and the responsibility of parents and other stewards of those youth to restrain and constrain the more prodigious among them from pursuing their dreams and strutting their stuff.

I guess the facts of this particular anecdote and the decisions that were made by Sunderland and her family are arguable. Maybe getting delayed and having to do the treacherous Cape navigation in the southern hemisphere