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As the excitement
of school children builds to super-charged levels as
they prepare to shift gears and fly into summertime,
there has never been a better time for students to
let their entrepreneurial wings catch the wind and
soar.
|
Pivotal
Book
NurtureShock:
New Thinking About Children
b y Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
352
pages
Publisher: Twelve
Released:
September 3, 2009
ISBN-13: 978-0446504126
In a world
of modern, involved, caring parents, why are so many kids aggressive
and cruel? Where is intelligence hidden in the brain, and why does
that matter? Why do cross-racial friendships decrease in schools
that are more integrated? If 98% of kids think lying is morally
wrong, then why do 98% of kids lie? What's the single most
important thing that helps infants learn language?
NurtureShock is
a groundbreaking collaboration between award-winning science
journalists Po
Bronson and
Ashley Merryman. They argue that when it comes to children, we've
mistaken good intentions for good ideas. With impeccable
storytelling and razor-sharp analysis, they demonstrate that many of
modern society's strategies for nurturing children are in fact
backfiring--because key twists in the science have been overlooked.
Nothing like a parenting manual, the authors' work is an
insightful exploration of themes and issues that transcend
children's (and adults') lives.
"The authors throw open the doors on this research to
create a book that is not only groundbreaking but compelling as
well. Even if you don't have children, or your kids are grown, you
should find the revelations about how the brain works and the rigors
and frustrations of the scientific process captivating . . . We see
[Bronson and Merryman] doggedly digging for answers to confounding
questions . . . Bronson, with his gentle, conversational style,
lays out every conundrum clearly, and shows all the steps the
researchers took to ensure accurate results, including tweaking
their testing methods when results were inconclusive or seemed
flawed. In a sense, it's "Science for Dummies" - explaining
cutting-edge research to a lay readership... Riveting."
(San Francisco Chronicle )
"Engaging . . . It's not didactic - more of a revelatory journey .
. . Bronson relays some startling scientific findings . . . Nobody's
ever done this before in
a systematic way . . . Using the simple technique of speaking to
researchers and observing them at work, Bronson and Merryman avoid
the smugness common to the parenting oeuvre, which is often rather
self-satisfied and/or guilt-inducing. This book's great value is to
show that much of what we take to be the norms of parenting - i.e.
what's good for children - is actually non-scientific and based on
our own adult social anxieties . . . This is a
funny, clever, sensible book. Every parent should read it."
(The Financial Times )
"NURTURESHOCK is one of the most important books you will read this
year. Bronson and Merryman move parenting out of the realm of
folklore and into the realm of science -- and reveal what decades of
studies teach us about the complexities of raising, happy, healthy,
self-motivated kids. As a writer, I was impressed by the prodigious
research and keen analysis. As a father, I was consumed with taking
notes and exhilarated by all I learned." (Daniel H. Pink, author
of A WHOLE NEW MIND )
"The least touchy-feely [parenting book] ever . . . Bronson delights
in showing that most parental intuition and supposedly common
knowledge about child rearing is just bullshit, and he has the facts
to prove it. Much like in his previous work, he's entered a genre
known for emotional cheese, and produced a book that's hard to put
down and easy to take seriously. Grade:
A" (The Onion AV Club )
"Bronson is a writer who can capture unwieldy topics such as Silicon
Valley (The Nudist on the Late Shift), family (Why Do I
Love These People?) and big decisions (What Should I Do with
My Life?). Now, in Nurtureshock,
he's taking on child rearing, and raising some issues about
adolescent intelligence, language acquisition, early friendships and
aggression that will surprise even well-informed parents." (Time
Out New York )
"A provocative collection of essays popularizing recent
research that challenges conventional wisdom about raising
children...[Bronson and Merryman] ably explore a range of subjects
of interest to parents... Their findings are often surprising. For
example, in schools with greater racial diversity, the odds that a
child will have a friend of a different race decrease; listening to
"baby DVDs" does not increase an infant's rate of word acquisition;
children with inconsistent and permissive fathers are nearly as
aggressive in school as children of distant and disengaged fathers.
Bronson and Merryman call attention to what they see as two basic
errors in thinking about children. The first is the fallacy of
similar effect-the assumption that what is true for adults is also
true for children. The second-the fallacy of the good/bad
dichotomy-is the assumption that a trait or factor is either good or
bad, when in fact it may be both (e.g., skill at lying may be a sign
of intelligence, and empathy may become a tool of aggression.) The
authors also provide helpful notes for each chapter and an extensive
bibliography. A
skilled, accessible presentation of scientific research in layman's
language." (Kirkus )
"Bronson is a modern Studs Terkel." (Glasgow Herald )
Listen:
Ashley & Po on Radio West, NPR out of
Salt Lake City, discussing NurtureShock. Click
to listen
Ashley on New York NPR (WNYC), The
Brian Lehrer Show, discussing
praise.Click
to listen/read
Buy the Book
NurtureShock:
New Thinking About Children
b y Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
$20.70
You can go to Amazon
for more information
and compare prices there. It will probably
depend on your
shipping.
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