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Free thinkers or Dull Clones?

I've been wondering about chaos/ spontaneity and flexibility in life as opposed to structure/ routine and rigidity.
I'm reading 'Little House on the Prairie' aloud to my kids: "You do as you're told, no matter what happens." Mary and Laura are told by their Pa. This instruction seems so rigid and inflexible as to be possibly dangerous, definitely not encouraging independent thought. I wondered about that style of parenting and the type of adults it would generate. Would this next generation be the sort of people who would gravitate to the armed forces, religion or any other institution where there is a defined heir achy and and code of behavior? Do they feel lost without it?
Does a defined code of behavior/ethics and an inflexible structure create independent free thinkers or dull clones afraid of change?
How are children in schools treated? How about the elderly? My mother nursed geriatric patients many years ago. She claimed adamantly that they needed routine and structure to their day or they would get very upset and behave like children. I think this rigid structure and constant repetitiveness starts to shut down independent thought. Is this a similar system as used in schools? Does it serve the same purpose? I wonder if all the structure and routine for the elderly patients was more about keeping them subdued and easy to manage rather than about what might be stimulating and mind expanding for them?
Reading 'Little House on the Prairie' has helped me feel very grateful for my life-journey with my family. Even with the bumps in the road we are still striving for freedom of thought and actions unlike those families living like Mary and Laura.

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Comment by Cindy Fox on April 23, 2010 at 6:50pm: I can see times when it may be neccessary to obey at all costs. Life threatening situations, like floods, tornadoes may require people to do things against their natural instinct. Little House was certainly set in a frontier setting, so this method might ensure a higher survival rate.

Comment by Miriam Skipworth on April 11, 2010 at 12:51am: I like the way you describe creating a routine to fit Ray, rather than as you say, creating a structure and trying to fit people into it.

Comment by Meredith on April 9, 2010 at 11:41am: Another source of confusion for a lot of people is equating routine with structure. Ray needed a lot of routine and a fair degree of organization when he was younger, but not "structure" per se. He needed to know when to expect things to happen, where to find things without having to... discover those each time I guess you could say. There were too many other things he wanted to discover! So I created a routine around his needs and made sure to organize things so he could find what he wanted. Its the sort of thing that can look like establishing a structure, but its a whole different matter when something like that is done in response to a real person's real needs rather than creating a structure and trying fit people into it.

Comment by Miriam Skipworth on April 7, 2010 at 5:41pm: True!
Thanks Sandra.
Indeed when I think about it more my family follows a code of behavior and ethics. I guess it's just which code a person/family subscribes to that could create dull clones.
Great more food for thought.
Thanks again.

Comment by Sandra Dodd on April 7, 2010 at 3:41pm: -=-Does a defined code of behavior/ethics and an inflexible structure create independent free thinkers or dull clones afraid of change?-=-

The question is written in trick form. There can be a code of behavior and ethics without it being "a defined code," and there can certainly be a family where behavior and ethics are central to their principles and believes without any aspect of "an inflexible structure."