Synopsis
Born out of Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman's eye-opening and award-winning articles on child development and behavior for New York Magazine, NURTURESHOCK is a powerful paradigm-shifting look at how many of our preconceived notions about what is best for our children prove--under the harsh light of the latest science--to be completely misguided. For example, the authors provide stunning evidence that excessive praise can be harmful for a child's psyche, that siblings have the most abusive and least supportive relationships of children, and that tests designed to find "gifted" children are wildly inaccurate. NURTURESHOCK is a thoroughly researched and compulsively readable look at hidden aspects of both child-development and society's attitude towards children. It provides shocking revelations that will be of interest not only to parents, but to anyone trying to understand the consequences and secret side-effects of their own childhood.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2009-09-03 | | Edition Description: | Unabridged |
| Size | | Height: | 5.8 in | | Width: | 5.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.8 in | | Weight: | 6.4 oz |
Publisher's Note
A collaborative work by two award-winning science journalists argues that popular nurture-based parenting techniques are proving unsuccessful because they fail to include key aspects of scientific research, in an analysis that covers such topics as aggression, intelligence, and moral behavior. Read by Po Bronson. Simultaneous.
Industry Reviews
"If NURTURESHOCK...can actually be classified as a parenting book, it may be the least touchy-feely one ever....[It] delights in showing that most parental intuition and supposedly common knowledge about child rearing is just [wrong], and he has the facts to prove it. Much like in his previous work, he's entered a genre known for emotional cheese, and produced a book that's hard to put down and easy to take seriously."
(09/03/2009)
"[The authors'] revelations about what the latest child-rearing research actually says may make you wonder, honestly, how any of us turned out OK....NURTURESHOCK could have been subtitled: You People Have No Clue. But it's not a manual, nor is it an attack on anything but the slapdash, headline-happy way in which scientific research is often uncritically blurred into existing conventional wisdom or spun from rough, complex wool into overly simple, flimsy 'tips.'...We're fumbling along with good intentions but rusty tools, the authors seem to say. Because much of the research they've found offers this reassurance: that kids -- despite our best efforts -- are doing better than we think."
(09/18/2009)
"Whereas others may call upon medical training, paternal wisdom or been-there-done-that motherhood, Bronson and Merryman...appeal to scientific reason.... [M]uch of the research here on the upkeep of children is interesting and worthwhile...."
(10/04/2009)
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