Nurture Shock

Recently I've reading NurtureShock, which is a blog and recently published book by Po Bronson (Yes, I would like to have Po for a name as well. You would think that would have to be short for something) and Ashley Merryman. They also have a regular column in Newsweek. Their main beef is the belief that today's agreed upon methods for raising our kiddies are wrong, wrong to the extent that they are "backfiring". Goodie, sounds exciting and you can be rest assured, I dug my teeth into this idea like a ravenous beast. Munch, munch. Despite my humor, yes, they do make a lot of sense. I like the way they think.

I recently read a number of articles they posted on the idea of predicting our children's future academic success. Private schools will go to preschools and scope out the children, picking those who show the most obedience. Apparently they are under the belief that an obedient 4 year old tike will grow into an obedient, successful student. Lets ignore the fact the child is still growing, as NurtureShock was quick to point out. The factors change with age. Being social and amiable is important when you are four, however, studies showed that these kids didn't actually end up being the academic stars of the class. In fact, the introverted teen was often the brain. I can't help but be reminded of awkwardly reading my book in the lunchroom while the popular boys from the wrestling team threw food and crude jokes back and forth. I graduated second in my class, those guys... not so much. I was also a roaring terror as a young child. Mom's theme song for me used to be "She drives me crazy! ooo! ooo!"

I guess what really bothers me about all that is this obsession with being elite. "My child is gifted! GIFTED!" It seems pretty absurd to me. When I have a child I'm going to focus on making him/her a decent human-being with respect for humanity instead of getting into the best prep school.