“We just try to be really clear that Goofus isn’t always bad. He’s not. He’s just often making choices that aren’t thoughtful or safe,” Cully said. One recent example that illustrates this is a strip from July 2022 in which Goofus and Gallant both fight with a friend. “When Goofus gets upset, he yells unkind things he’ll regret,” the caption reads. We would never have gotten such insight into the future mental state of the Goofus of old. But the new Goofus is not a total monster—he will regret it later.

The starker differences between the Goofus and Gallant of the past and present aren’t signs that all parents of previous decades were emotionally distant disciplinarians, or that all parents today have endless patience for their kids’ big feelings. Nevertheless, the boys’ evolution reflects American parenting culture’s own evolution. As the fire and brimstone of “Because I said so” authoritarian parenting has fallen out of favor, Goofus and Gallant have also become more than the messengers of strict commandments. They have a spark of humanity.

So even if Goofus and Gallant will always be the devil and the angel sitting on kids’ shoulders, nowadays, you might say, there is a little more sympathy for the Goofus.

[Is that a good thing? Given the lack of discipline and emotional control of children in recent times, I’m not so sure. Parenting culture may have improved in some aspects, but it in others not so much, and school discipline has been discarded altogether. Having grown up a bit on G&G and “Highlights” in the 1960s and 1970s, the point wasn’t inward empathy but outward expressions of etiquette and unselfishness. No one needed to sympathize with the Goofus to get the point. Beck’s lengthy essay is still intriguing, though, even if one disagrees with some of her conclusions. — Ed]