My sister works at a local farm store, and a few weeks ago she brought home an array of jams her employer could not sell. Why? Well, someone hadn’t labeled them upon canning. Unless you cracked open a jar and tasted a spoonful, it was hard to tell if the orangish spread was apricot, pumpkin, or peach. A label would have solved this problem, and its absence created an identification issue, yet the product inside was perfectly fine.

Today’s culture seems intent on applying this “jam jar” principle to our children. Obviously being born with a physical label is biologically impossible, yet modern psychology thinks it can provide mental and emotional labels much like a philosophical jammer.

This labeling of our youth has been happening for decades. If this was a successful and well-balanced approach to helping the next generation be understood, then we would see a surge in confident, stable young adults flooding our universities and workforce. The reverse, however, is taking place. As a 2025 National Survey explained, Gen Z is facing a “confidence crisis,” something to which our universities and workforces can attest.

I believe this confused, overwhelmed generation started decades ago, when these same individuals were children. These kids became the primary mission of the mental health awareness mob as they sought opportunities to rectify so-called “past wrongs” in the educational and parenting sectors of our society. Their goal may have been a loving one, but sadly, their actions have reaped an entirely different harvest than previously projected.

Labels Assume Children Have a Static, Unchanging Personality 

Most adults have heard a six-year-old say he will be a firefighter when he grows up, only to change his mind the next day with plans to fly a jet. It’s a healthy, normal process for a child to switch courses, ideas, and plans daily, or even mid-sentence!

Yet this understanding of childish indecision does not extend into the mental health arena. When that same six-year-old has a rough month at school, his parents are told he lacks concentration. The attention deficit disorder label is immediately slapped on his forehead without giving thought to his changing mind and body.

New studies indicate the “adolescent” stage of the brain lasts into our 30s. Can we not see how easily a child could be taken for an unruly, disordered student instead of a developing pupil who naturally struggles with sitting still for long periods?

Labels Are Subjective and Do Not Take Societal and Biological Factors Into Consideration

Misdiagnosis of mental health disorders is happening at an alarming rate in school-age children. ADHD is one of the most “popular” problems among minors, but its definition severely lacks in its awareness of the patient being so labeled. Not only do we see more boys than girls being so diagnosed, but studies also prove the youngest children in class are twice as likely to get the ADHD treatment than their older peers. Mental health labels do not have cut-and-dried brain scans, blood testing, or x-rays that prove they exist. At best, they use qualitative arguments to prove a child fits their “criteria.”

Labels Force Children Into Boxes

This is the saddest consequence in my opinion, and one that can last a lifetime for a child. When someone is told from an early age that they have a mental condition, and therefore will struggle at certain tasks, social functions, or emotional connections, what do you think will be the result? That child will forever see the invisible constraints with which he must cope. As a private tutor, I’ve heard students prefix statements, “Since I have…,” proceeding to then give me their psychologist’s definition for themselves. Sadly, this leads minors to justify bad behavior simply because they have an official excuse.

Children are not jam jars. Nor is it a freeing thought for them that they have a label they must bear like a preserve as long as they live and breathe. Like famed teacher Charlotte Mason declared, “A child is a person in whom all possibilities are present––present now at this very moment––not to be educed after many years and efforts manifold on the part of the educator.”

I believe our next generation deserves no less than this acknowledgement of their abilities. Let us speak out against the labeling culture and give our children the voice they need to grow and change without fear.

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This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News.

Image credit: Unsplash