The great solution to the closing of the American mind, and any other mind, is reading together as a family. When parents, youth and children sit together and read through a book, especially an important or great book, something happens deep within all who participate. If the parents stop reading periodically and openly discuss what is being learned, ask questions, and listen as well as share their thoughts, the thinking is often literally profound. This is, in fact, the high point of thinking, since the practical sense and unbridled intuition of the children often fixes any learned misconceptions of the adults. Wisdom flows out of the mouth of babes, but it is only really valuable if the adults are listening.

Youth naturally learn from adults in this setting, and the children learn from the youth. As mentioned, the adults learn a great deal from the children--as any parent can attest. The youth are surprisingly open to listening to adults in this environment, and the adults are uncharacteristically likely to be taught by their children and youth. In fact, this educational setting is nearly a cure-all of family education dysfunction--and it often addresses non-educational challenges as well. Unfortunately, this type of learning is much too infrequent in the modern world.