The Hurried Child

03/07/2011

Be careful what you teach, it might interfere with what they are learning.
Magda Gerber (magdagerber.org)

I have enjoyed watching readers rate, in the Exchange Insta Poll, the "Books that Shaped our Profession." Near the top is a book that certainly influenced my thinking, The Hurried Child by David Elkind. In the introduction, Elkind makes his case...

"Hurried children are forced to take on the physical, psychological, and social trappings of adulthood before they are prepared to deal with them. We dress our children in miniature adult costumes (often with designer labels), we expose our children to gratuitous sex and violence, and we expect them to cope with an increasingly bewildering social environment — divorce, single parenthood, homosexuality. Through all of these pressures, the child senses that it is important for him or her to cope without admitting the confusion and pain that accompany such changes. Like adults, they are made to feel they must be survivors, and surviving means adjusting — even if the survivor is only four or six or eight years old. This pressure to cope without cracking is a stress in itself, the effects of which must be tallied with all the other effects of hurrying our children."

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