Ohh.. Well I dont know if im getting you, but are you're worried about the limitations and subjections of the environemt that a child is brought up in and into which can lead to depressive thoughts?
I don't know, to be honest, if that's what you mean. The possibility that a child can fall down into a depressive state by awareness of who they are and what they are (limited to whatever knowledge and experience they have encountered to date in their life)/ by the abuse and ignorance of those around them is always going to be there.
the self as a person's innate temperament acted upon by their environment
Donno if I get you. Do you mean that the self to you is a self created aspect, whose core aspects are drawn upon by the environment we are in? And limited to the envionments own possibilities?
Eh? The self is a persons self created/born "feelings/thoughts" -- temperment. .. which is what we act upon in the environment around us? Or the environment around us stimulates and fuels those aspects? Or the environment feeds on those innate feelings/thoughts which causes us to respond and react accordingly forcing us to be drawn into a tennis match with our enviornments inorder to keep our own selfs above water?
I really dont know how you perceive "self". Just throwing shit out there.
In anycase... I still think there's more to life than the limitations of our own thoughts and desires. Sometimes it just needs someone elses perception of life to show and create a new more producitve environment to open doorways to better possibilities in life that we can't percieve on our own.
Again I probably am far off beat from what you are trying to say, but .. I don't think it's immoral, if you can give your child the opportunities and nurturing to allow them to see past their own environment(s), by giving them access to all different aspects of life, and teaching them respcet and openness.. aswell as a trillion other things too.