Hothouse Kids: How the Pressure to Succeed is Threatening Childhood

New
Paperback
2007
$9.38

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.

Synopsis

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.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd
Published: 05 Jul 2007
ISBN 10: 009950927X
ISBN 13: 9780099509271
Book Overview: An expose of the ways in which today's children are being driven ever harder to succeed

Media Reviews

Her one-on-one interviews and insightful reports from the field give this book its sparkle. Quart's survey of what she calls the Baby Genius Edutainment Complex reveals an astonishing array of items aimed at raising the IQs of toddlers, infants and even the unborn, as producers of unproven products seek to persuade parents that they can enhance their child's brain development if only they act soon enough. * Kirkus Review *
While Quart wonderfully details the daily grinds of genuine prodigies (in everything from violin to preaching to entrepreneurship), the real force of the book is in showing how gifted childhood - relentlessly tested, totally overscheduled and joylessly competitive - is being created by striving parents of all stripes ... Quart's second book is first-class literary journalism. * Publishers' Weekly *
Quart's message, thoughtful, often eloquent and bracingly frank, injects common sense into the overwrought rhetoric of parenting. -- Janice P. Nimura * Los Angeles Times *
Utterly fascinating - Quart's meticulous research and insightful analysis range from teen preacher competitions to the link between mathletes and Wall Street recruits. * Entertainment Weekly *

Author Bio

Alissa Quart is the author of the acclaimed book Branded. She writes opinion pieces and book reviews for The New York Times and features for Lingua Franca, Elle, The Nation and Salon. A former child prodigy, she started writing novels at the age of seven and won numerous national writing competitions. She is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.