This is from the Sunday Book Review - The New Your Times written by Annie Murphy Paul published August 12,2012
Below are the parts of the book review that stood out for me but please read the entire review for yourself by clicking HERE.
The book is “How Children Succeed" by Paul Tough
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“Most readers of The New York Times probably subscribe to what Paul Tough calls “the cognitive hypothesis”: the belief “that success today depends primarily on cognitive skills — the kind of intelligence that gets measured on I.Q. tests, including the abilities to recognize letters and words, to calculate, to detect patterns — and that the best way to develop these skills is to practice them as much as possible, beginning as early as possible.” In his new book, “How Children Succeed,” Tough sets out to replace this assumption with what might be called the character hypothesis: the notion that noncognitive skills, like persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence, are more crucial than sheer brainpower to achieving success.”
“The part of the brain most affected by early stress is the prefrontal cortex, which is critical in self-regulatory activities of all kinds, both emotional and cognitive. As a result, children who grow up in stressful environments generally find it harder to concentrate, harder to sit still, harder to rebound from disappointments and harder to follow directions. And that has a direct effect on their performance in school. When you’re overwhelmed by uncontrollable impulses and distracted by negative feelings, it’s hard to learn the alphabet.” Paul Tough book “How Children Succeed”
“Children can be buffered from surrounding stresses by attentive, responsive parenting, but the adults in these children’s lives are often too burdened by their own problems to offer such care.”
“He explores the research of Suniya Luthar, a psychology professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Luthar “found that parenting mattered at both socioeconomic extremes. For both rich and poor teenagers, certain family characteristics predicted children’s maladjustment, including low levels of maternal attachment, high levels of parental criticism and minimal after-school adult supervision. Among the affluent children, Luthar found, the main cause of distress was ‘excessive achievement pressures and isolation from parents — both physical and emotional.’ ”
“Character-building combination of support and autonomy…”
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This book is now on my must read this year list.
This is very interesting -I sent a link to my wife. I want to take steps to limit the stressors that influence our children but it's very difficult to manage even my own stress at times! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind this book is talking mostly about intercity families that lack the resources available to other middle and upper class families. Also some of the 'stress' that are talked about are abuse, both physical and emotional.
DeleteTeaching our children how to handle stress from our (their) daily lives, and those outside of our stable family environment, is an important key. Helping our children to learn the grit of finishing a task or large goal in their lives is another important key that will lead to their success.
I really like this quote, “Character-building combination of support and autonomy…”. It is something that we have worked very hard on, in the form of teaching the boys how to make their own good decision.
The book is on the way and I will share other nuggets of information I am sure.