Hothouse Kids: How the Pressure to Succeed Threatens Childhood

Description

Alissa Quart's deeply disturbing account looks at the intensely competitive and frenzied lives of America's children. Travelling the country and talking to scores of parents, teachers and children she looks at the overhyped world of baby edutainment and 'better baby' early education programmes, takes the lid off the world of IQ testing and child competitions (from Scrabble and chess to child preaching), and explores the lives of particular children who have been identified as prodigies - from a four-year-old painter whose works sell for $300,000 to an eight-year-old professional skateboarder who is backed by nine corporate sponsors. And she asks the questions that many parents find themselves asking. Where should parents and teachers draw the line? How do we establish when children are being under-stimulated or over-stretched? And can the hothousing of children lead to irreparable problems later in life? Hothouse Kids is a thought-provoking, often shocking exploration of a subject that is only too worryingly topical. ONE The Icarus Effect TWO The Baby Genius Edutainment Complex: The New Smart Baby Products THREE The Educated Infant: Classes for an Improved Childhood FOUR Child’s Play or Child Labor? Preprofessional Kids FIVE Gifted and Left Behind: Enrichment in the Public Schools SIX Gurus of Giftedness: Intelligence Testing and Talent by Other Measures SEVEN Extreme Parenting: Mothers and Fathers as the Ultimate Instructors EIGHT Young Competitors: Youth Contests for Good and for Ill NINE Children of God: The Teen Preaching Tournaments TEN The Prodigy Hunters: Math Whiz Kids Become Wall Street Recruits CONCLUSION Rethinking Giftedness: Against Perfection Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index