Social engineering in America: a horror story

Having a best friend or two is a basic human need for most people. So when I first bounced into this New York Times article, it read like some kind of horror dystopian fiction; but it's not. Apparently, more and more teachers and school counselors in the U.S. are trying to discourage kids from having best friends. While most people will agree that this is a rather horrendous idea, it is still part of an ongoing trend in American culture where parents, teachers and other caretakers are trying to micromanage and engineer every aspect of children's lives. It will be interesting to see the results of this social experiment in a few years.