[truculation]

>if by “intention” you mean “clumsily projected attitude”.

Nah, just intention. For example, teaching children arithmetic with great moral seriousness, as we do, doesn't produce great arithmeticians. It merely encourages people to become math teachers.

>The idea that parenting isn't a field which can be, and is, productively studied

Trouble is that most of the knowledge is inexplicit and that family life is private. So trying to uncover and understand what's really going on is hard. If you try to study families empirically then you're (a) interfering with their normal activities, and (b) avoiding the fact that morality is independent of outcome. However, from the article, 'coach' suggests people are already giving advice. They think they know the answers.

[olau]

100% agree. You can see the same happening in management - results from extremely simplified experiments is extrapolated to overarching advice.

Interacting with other people is complex and context-sensitive.

[jacobolus]

Can you explain what you mean by “great moral seriousness” and “great arithmetician” in this context? What do you think the purpose of teaching elementary mathematics is?