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Hothouse Kids: The Dilemma of the Gifted Child
An investigation into the pressures placed on today's gifted children evaluates the long-term consequences of high demands and competitiveness, revealing the truth about current practices in IQ testing, the pitfalls of the No Child Left Behind Act, and the downside of popular practices in over-scheduling. By the author of Branded. 30,000 first printing.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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241 people want to read
About the author
Alissa Quart
13 books127 followersAlissa Quart is the executive editor of the journalism non-profit Economic Hardship Reporting Project. She co-founded its current incarnation with Barbara Ehrenreich. She is also the author of four previous acclaimed books, “Branded,’’ “Republic of Outsiders,’’ “Hothouse Kids’’ and the poetry book “Monetized.’’ She writes the Outclassed column for The Guardian and has published features and reported commentary in many magazines and newspapers, most recently for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Nation and The New York Review of Books. She has won the Columbia Journalism School’s 2018 Alumni Award and the LA Press Club Award for Commentary, was a 2010 Nieman fellow at Harvard University, and has been nominated for an Emmy and a National Magazine Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
January 24, 2010
This book, if well written, could have been fascinating; instead, it is only intermittently interesting. The work is disorganized; there is no clear thesis uniting the random anecdotes of gifted children, the occasional academic study, or the incomplete speculations on giftedness. Indeed, I left the book with no clear sense of what should, if anything, be done to better serve the gifted population of children. The author, being a journalist, makes an attempt at balance, but her prejudices are so clear that this attempt only ends up confusing matters, sometimes leaving me questioning what point she was trying to make. The book would have been much more enjoyable if she had simply stated and argued for her own positions and attempted to knock down the counter-arguments rather than feigning balance. I might not have agreed with her, but at least I would have been entertained and had a clearer sense of the arguments that support her position.
Her writing style struck me as somewhat immature: she is constantly describing people according to their clothing styles, mannerisms, and resemblance to various celebrities, sounding very much like a journalist attempting (rather lamely) to be a creative writer. I have no idea what her background is, but I got the impression from her writing that she cannot possibly have young children of her own, or closely know very many people who do, because she seems to have a limited concept of the motivation of mothers.
While her positions on a particular point are not always clear, she does seem to have a general axe to grind against the very concept of giftedness. She was apparently a precocious child pushed to excel by her father, and she resents the experience deeply. She often portrays the gifted children in her anecdotes as freaks, gifted educators as New Age crackpots, and parents of the gifted as control freaks or mercenaries. While this is no doubt true in some cases, I doubt it is true in most. She also seems to think the concept of giftedness is some kind of tool in class warfare, and she refers to homeschooling as a form of “extreme parenting.”
People have referred to this work as well researched, but I think it is more like a feature article spun into a book. There are occasional references to statistics and numbers, but no systematic approach to substantiating or disproving any particular hypothesis. I think she exaggerates the influence of the “edutainment” industry, and here is one of the places where I was skeptical of her experience with mothers of young children. She discounts the claims of the “Mozart effect” and other such early brain enhancing claims fairly well, but she seems to believe that the average mom who buys a Baby Einstein video or attends a Gymboree does so because she is obsessed with making her child gifted or overwrought with fear that her child will not be able to progress academically if she does not intervene early. In my (admittedly anecdotal) experience, there are four primary reasons moms put on a Baby Einstein video for their children, and none has anything to do with the brain: (1) To get the child to sit still long enough for mom to accomplish something (2) To get the child to be distracted and calm down in the midst of a fit (3) To get the child to fall asleep or (4) To get a persnickety, difficult to feed child to eat. And most moms I know who go to classes with young children do so (1) To get out of the house and (2) To meet and interact with other adults.
Finally, the author is a little snide in her descriptions of virtually everyone she interviews, and while occasionally amusing, this becomes annoying after awhile, and the consistency of the snideness makes me doubt her accuracy.
Her writing style struck me as somewhat immature: she is constantly describing people according to their clothing styles, mannerisms, and resemblance to various celebrities, sounding very much like a journalist attempting (rather lamely) to be a creative writer. I have no idea what her background is, but I got the impression from her writing that she cannot possibly have young children of her own, or closely know very many people who do, because she seems to have a limited concept of the motivation of mothers.
While her positions on a particular point are not always clear, she does seem to have a general axe to grind against the very concept of giftedness. She was apparently a precocious child pushed to excel by her father, and she resents the experience deeply. She often portrays the gifted children in her anecdotes as freaks, gifted educators as New Age crackpots, and parents of the gifted as control freaks or mercenaries. While this is no doubt true in some cases, I doubt it is true in most. She also seems to think the concept of giftedness is some kind of tool in class warfare, and she refers to homeschooling as a form of “extreme parenting.”
People have referred to this work as well researched, but I think it is more like a feature article spun into a book. There are occasional references to statistics and numbers, but no systematic approach to substantiating or disproving any particular hypothesis. I think she exaggerates the influence of the “edutainment” industry, and here is one of the places where I was skeptical of her experience with mothers of young children. She discounts the claims of the “Mozart effect” and other such early brain enhancing claims fairly well, but she seems to believe that the average mom who buys a Baby Einstein video or attends a Gymboree does so because she is obsessed with making her child gifted or overwrought with fear that her child will not be able to progress academically if she does not intervene early. In my (admittedly anecdotal) experience, there are four primary reasons moms put on a Baby Einstein video for their children, and none has anything to do with the brain: (1) To get the child to sit still long enough for mom to accomplish something (2) To get the child to be distracted and calm down in the midst of a fit (3) To get the child to fall asleep or (4) To get a persnickety, difficult to feed child to eat. And most moms I know who go to classes with young children do so (1) To get out of the house and (2) To meet and interact with other adults.
Finally, the author is a little snide in her descriptions of virtually everyone she interviews, and while occasionally amusing, this becomes annoying after awhile, and the consistency of the snideness makes me doubt her accuracy.
February 21, 2013
This book was kind of unorganized, covered a lot, but didn't really wrap things into a nice package. Maybe it's not wrapable. Nevertheless, I liked it. It covered all the insane lengths parents go to to encourage early development of talent in their kids.......they have them playing soccer at two, music lessons at one, math tutors at four. Not just academics, but people seem to want their children doing everything younger. I've noticed a shift since I was a kid. In my day, you started organized team sports around 8. Dance at about five. Life was filled with free play and exploration. Now these poor kids are rushed to three activities a day, eat in the car on the go, and don't know the meaning of "go play in the backyard". They've lost the ability to keep themselves entertained, or to enjoy just being. Obviously parents want to give their children advantages, but it goes way too far.
I loved the thought provoking discussion on if all this early enrichment really can turn out gifted kids. Can it mostly all be nurture? I'm siding more toward nurture than when I started the book. Not completely, but just think of great teachers that elevate students-- I think the movie was Stand and Deliver.? But the question is, how much? How much do you push, how early do you instruct? What vital part of childhood do your children give up so they can become better earlier? What is the point of such adult behavior and competition for the young and what harm does it cause them?
I read this book as part of a continuum of learning about gifted behavior, and how I should develop it, in my own child. This book leaves me thinking I should take a much more hands off approach. But it is an incredibly hard task to decide what is right, what the right amount of investment is. You don't want them becoming self centered.. thinking the world is about their education, or their sport. And if they have a gift you want to encourage it, give them opportunity. In the end, like all things, it comes down to moderation. Perfect balance.
All in all a thought provoking book...would make an awesome documentary. Well written, but not as well organized.
I loved the thought provoking discussion on if all this early enrichment really can turn out gifted kids. Can it mostly all be nurture? I'm siding more toward nurture than when I started the book. Not completely, but just think of great teachers that elevate students-- I think the movie was Stand and Deliver.? But the question is, how much? How much do you push, how early do you instruct? What vital part of childhood do your children give up so they can become better earlier? What is the point of such adult behavior and competition for the young and what harm does it cause them?
I read this book as part of a continuum of learning about gifted behavior, and how I should develop it, in my own child. This book leaves me thinking I should take a much more hands off approach. But it is an incredibly hard task to decide what is right, what the right amount of investment is. You don't want them becoming self centered.. thinking the world is about their education, or their sport. And if they have a gift you want to encourage it, give them opportunity. In the end, like all things, it comes down to moderation. Perfect balance.
All in all a thought provoking book...would make an awesome documentary. Well written, but not as well organized.
August 19, 2009
This rambling book is a loosely arranged series of vignettes of highly gifted children being raised in a culture that promotes their giftedness in unhealthy ways. The author's general question is whether fostering extreme giftedness early in life is helping the child develop their true potential or exploiting them at the expense of future happiness and success. The meandering stories of extremely gifted children are loosely collected into various themes and offer some interesting perspectives into the lives of child prodigies but fail to offer any real solutions or suggestions for supporting highly gifted children. Those of us who work with the less extremely gifted can take few practical ideas or essential information from from this book. To be honest I didn't even finish it!
June 18, 2010
Wasn't what I had expected - I hoped that the book would provide ideas for intervention when public school isn't quite working for your gifted child. Instead I felt like it was more of a criticism of parents who "create" prodigies by pushing them at a young age. Which is fine - just not applicable to my situation. What do you do when they just come that way? There weren't a whole lot of answers in this book - though I presume that if a pushy parent were to pick up this book looking for answers for their so-called "gifted" child - a word of caution might just go a long way. Let your kids be kids, for heaven's sake. It's the only childhood they've got.
August 7, 2020
A research-based, insightful read on the controversial realm of raising kids - in particular, gifted kids - in America. It's a good book for parents who want to cram every ounce of knowledge they can into their kids, in deep fear that anything but such upbringing would put them at a competitive disadvantage.
The book is titled "dilemma," yet the author clearly aligns her perspective against that of pushing (gifted) young children to excel. As the reader, her reservations of such upbringing resonated with that of my own (not that I was gifted by any means lol), but it often felt like her arguments fell short of development.
It was a good thought-provoking read on how what we think is best is not often better. In an increasingly competitive world, what we think is best for our kids may not actually be better.
The book is titled "dilemma," yet the author clearly aligns her perspective against that of pushing (gifted) young children to excel. As the reader, her reservations of such upbringing resonated with that of my own (not that I was gifted by any means lol), but it often felt like her arguments fell short of development.
It was a good thought-provoking read on how what we think is best is not often better. In an increasingly competitive world, what we think is best for our kids may not actually be better.
September 26, 2013
"it's clear that child enrichment has filtered down into infancy, with such keystones as baby sign language vogue and the fad for infant edutainment videos like the Baby Einstein series. I call it the Baby Genius Edutainment Complex." (p.3)
"Despite these repeated demonstrations of the benefits of early learning and the location and enrichment of gifted children, however, the outcome of such intervention is not always positive. For instance, there's little long-term evidence to support a lot of the so-called enrichment to which parents subscribe." (p.5)
The overcultivated can develop self-esteem problems and performance anxiety to children, but particular later-life problems can await adults who once expected to have infinite capabilities."(p.6)
"The way I played as a child is not at all how I play now. I make mistakes. I make things up. I record my improvisations on the reel-to-reel. My father thinks I am an undisciplined person. Then, I just wanted to be perfect. I was old when I was young. I am young now that I am old." (p.11)
"An over emphasis on early achievement has caused many to forget that achievements can also come later on- that not everyone accomplishes at the same velocity." (p.20)
"In an article in the toy trade magazine in 1927, dolls were termed an 'Antidote to Race Suicide' in that they would encourage white girls to reproduce." (p.29)
"cell death is actually a part of the learning process. 'When you learn to read, you are killing cells to create a pathway,' he says." (p.37)
"How much adult direction of children's play is too much direction, over determining children's activity and sucking the spirit out of it?" (p.70)
The long childhood was a time and place separate from the demands of the marketplace and adult worries, and from the distinctly adult varieties of power and powerlessness. (p.73)
"'Norms change, children change, the population changes,' says Sattler. 'That's why if you want a scientific psychometric instrument, you can't use a scientifically standardized instrument that's fifty years old.'" (p.118)
"The problem is that people confuse achievement and ability." (p.119)
"he doesn't think math learning should always go from the concrete to the abstract, because some children think abstractly before they think concretely. He also thinks if children are verbally intelligent, using language helps them to organize information far better than memorizing numbers." (p.124)
"It's a terrible experience for a child to be tested. It's high stress. A child keeps answering questions until they fail. They are sitting one-on-one with an adult in a chair for two and a half hours- until they fail! Personally, I'd rather be outside playing." (p.130)
"Stevens writes that these homeschooling mothers may seem to have abandoned liberal feminism, but they haven't: rather, their workplace is their home, where they 'are engines of elaborate family projects and the brick and mortar of an impressive social movement infrastructure. While it may look traditional at first blush, homeschooling's dramatically expanded motherhood is also subtly in keeping with liberal feminist demands.'" (p.149)
"Those who question the spread of competition insist that inspiration for pursuing an activity must come from within- be intrinsic- rather than being externally or intrinsically motivated." (p.154)
"we sometimes enjoy depictions of prodigies getting their comeuppance. Even though the wish for a child's downfall, even an arrogant, enviable child, is taboo and bears the whiff of psychic murder, the perpetually mediocre adult continues to want to watch the young competitor fail." (p.167)
"There's a certain strangeness to all kid competitions, in the way children are pushed to perform and excel." (p.172)
"But 'realness', as anyone familiar with theatre or drag knows, can be very much an effect, as constructed as giftedness itself. It can be more about mastery and memorization than belief and knowledge." (p.173)
"he seems to have shrugged off the cloak of precocious failure. Doing so may have enabled him to claim his true gift: the knowledge that he is more than his accomplishments, more even than his failures. When he no longer needed to be gifted, he could simply be." (p.200)
"In my numerous conversations with 'formerly gifted' kids, the emotional debits of the Icarus effect were widespread. Their reports of feeling they were forced to contort themselves to fit the shape of an adult life, and their regrets about how intensively they devote themselves to their training, and even about being labeled with the identity at all, should be loud cautionary tales regarding how the pressure that is applied to kids so early these days may be affecting them." (p.205)
"Rather than focusing so much on rote performance, whether in the arts, sports, or academic competitions, we should be increasing the resources we allocate to school programs for students with good learning skills, and training more teachers in how to teach students with a range of special learning capabilities." (p.206)
"Children who can integrate information will be best prepared to be life learners with flexible minds. This sort of flexibility depends, in part, on children not tying learning to obligation- rather, learning how to learn with a certain lightness and adaptability." (p.208)
"two forms of childhood independence- self directed pursuit of interests and nondirected play- are by far the most important 'gifts' that one can give a child." (p.209)
"Despite these repeated demonstrations of the benefits of early learning and the location and enrichment of gifted children, however, the outcome of such intervention is not always positive. For instance, there's little long-term evidence to support a lot of the so-called enrichment to which parents subscribe." (p.5)
The overcultivated can develop self-esteem problems and performance anxiety to children, but particular later-life problems can await adults who once expected to have infinite capabilities."(p.6)
"The way I played as a child is not at all how I play now. I make mistakes. I make things up. I record my improvisations on the reel-to-reel. My father thinks I am an undisciplined person. Then, I just wanted to be perfect. I was old when I was young. I am young now that I am old." (p.11)
"An over emphasis on early achievement has caused many to forget that achievements can also come later on- that not everyone accomplishes at the same velocity." (p.20)
"In an article in the toy trade magazine in 1927, dolls were termed an 'Antidote to Race Suicide' in that they would encourage white girls to reproduce." (p.29)
"cell death is actually a part of the learning process. 'When you learn to read, you are killing cells to create a pathway,' he says." (p.37)
"How much adult direction of children's play is too much direction, over determining children's activity and sucking the spirit out of it?" (p.70)
The long childhood was a time and place separate from the demands of the marketplace and adult worries, and from the distinctly adult varieties of power and powerlessness. (p.73)
"'Norms change, children change, the population changes,' says Sattler. 'That's why if you want a scientific psychometric instrument, you can't use a scientifically standardized instrument that's fifty years old.'" (p.118)
"The problem is that people confuse achievement and ability." (p.119)
"he doesn't think math learning should always go from the concrete to the abstract, because some children think abstractly before they think concretely. He also thinks if children are verbally intelligent, using language helps them to organize information far better than memorizing numbers." (p.124)
"It's a terrible experience for a child to be tested. It's high stress. A child keeps answering questions until they fail. They are sitting one-on-one with an adult in a chair for two and a half hours- until they fail! Personally, I'd rather be outside playing." (p.130)
"Stevens writes that these homeschooling mothers may seem to have abandoned liberal feminism, but they haven't: rather, their workplace is their home, where they 'are engines of elaborate family projects and the brick and mortar of an impressive social movement infrastructure. While it may look traditional at first blush, homeschooling's dramatically expanded motherhood is also subtly in keeping with liberal feminist demands.'" (p.149)
"Those who question the spread of competition insist that inspiration for pursuing an activity must come from within- be intrinsic- rather than being externally or intrinsically motivated." (p.154)
"we sometimes enjoy depictions of prodigies getting their comeuppance. Even though the wish for a child's downfall, even an arrogant, enviable child, is taboo and bears the whiff of psychic murder, the perpetually mediocre adult continues to want to watch the young competitor fail." (p.167)
"There's a certain strangeness to all kid competitions, in the way children are pushed to perform and excel." (p.172)
"But 'realness', as anyone familiar with theatre or drag knows, can be very much an effect, as constructed as giftedness itself. It can be more about mastery and memorization than belief and knowledge." (p.173)
"he seems to have shrugged off the cloak of precocious failure. Doing so may have enabled him to claim his true gift: the knowledge that he is more than his accomplishments, more even than his failures. When he no longer needed to be gifted, he could simply be." (p.200)
"In my numerous conversations with 'formerly gifted' kids, the emotional debits of the Icarus effect were widespread. Their reports of feeling they were forced to contort themselves to fit the shape of an adult life, and their regrets about how intensively they devote themselves to their training, and even about being labeled with the identity at all, should be loud cautionary tales regarding how the pressure that is applied to kids so early these days may be affecting them." (p.205)
"Rather than focusing so much on rote performance, whether in the arts, sports, or academic competitions, we should be increasing the resources we allocate to school programs for students with good learning skills, and training more teachers in how to teach students with a range of special learning capabilities." (p.206)
"Children who can integrate information will be best prepared to be life learners with flexible minds. This sort of flexibility depends, in part, on children not tying learning to obligation- rather, learning how to learn with a certain lightness and adaptability." (p.208)
"two forms of childhood independence- self directed pursuit of interests and nondirected play- are by far the most important 'gifts' that one can give a child." (p.209)
July 30, 2018
This book cites individual stories of highly gifted children, including the author, who were resentful of their upbringing or had major problems as adults that they attributed to their upbringing. She mentions one boy who committed suicide as a teenager in several different chapters. The "research" the author presents is incredibly biased, citing only several limited studies that support her bias.
Want to read
November 20, 2018Date started Oct 22, 2013 - unfinished as of Nov 20, 2018. Left off on page 103.
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September 27, 2021FINISHED: Saint Mary's, MD
January 5, 2023
Incredibly thorough and well researched!
February 12, 2009
This was a great book. I think parents should read it as a cautionary tale, even if you don't think your child is gifted. Children are still being directed into activities that require a lot of dedication even if they have little to no interest in them, they will still do it to please the parents! The author points out what experts on creativity have shown, that people, especially gifted people will usually spend many many hours on activities they love willingly! That should be encouraged by parents but never forced. I mean, is your child really gifted if you have to force them to practice? Probably not. Anyway, it also verified some ideas I had about being schooled during the times of GATE programs (gifted) and tracking in schools. It has helped me to start to come to terms with that and maybe put the past to rest. I would recommend this book for ex-gifted children too. The book got a little lengthy when the author started to explore different aspects of the "gifted" industry but the information is valuable. She talks at length about early childhood education and those Baby Einstein DVDs! A must read for that alone!
September 7, 2016
It's an interesting book, but somehow manages to be dry while not particularly academic. I've read a lot of books of this sort, looking at various neurological issues in history, and this one just didn't connect as well as most.
The author also manages to stay fairly neutral on almost all topics. So for parents hoping to get advice on say, what schooling option is optimal, or whether to sign up for that lesson, you'll get a fairly even handed description of kids who flourished and kids who tanked in each situation, without a lot of conclusions.
Overall, it was an interesting read, especially if you are fascinated by child prodigies, but perhaps a little too arms length (which is surprising since the author chose the subject based on her own gifted childhood).
The author also manages to stay fairly neutral on almost all topics. So for parents hoping to get advice on say, what schooling option is optimal, or whether to sign up for that lesson, you'll get a fairly even handed description of kids who flourished and kids who tanked in each situation, without a lot of conclusions.
Overall, it was an interesting read, especially if you are fascinated by child prodigies, but perhaps a little too arms length (which is surprising since the author chose the subject based on her own gifted childhood).
June 29, 2008
This book presents a great deal of scientific research pertaining to the area of child giftedness and also contains some interesting anecdotes from former "gifted children." After reading the book, however, I find myself no less confused about key issues, such as "What is giftendness?" and "How does the label affect children?" The best part of the book was the chapter de-bunking Baby Einstein and other "Edutainment" videos. It confirms what many people have already guessed - no legitimate study has ever found that sitting a baby in front of a TV will make him/her smarter. In the end, however, I don't think I'm much closer to understanding the complex issue of child giftedness.
November 8, 2007
What do we as a society do with gifted kids and how does that affect them as they grow? It's an interesting question and Alissa Quart does her best to examine it. I think it's weak in that it does not come to any strong statement of what should be done. It also would be stronger if it did not toss so wide of a net and limited it's topics a bit more. Quart spends most of the book bringing us into a world where most of us do not live. A world where every child can be "gifted" if taught well and early enough and parents spend too much time and effort pushing their children in the mistaken belief that if they don't their children will fail. It's a sad world out there.
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February 1, 2009Tired of reading about those gifted kids who go on to do great things? Read about the ones who are all screwed up!!
This is NOT an overview of giftedness or an attempt to define giftedness or a list of things to do with gifted kids. There are way too many people complaining about how this book focuses on only the worst cases and is not applicable to their interests in gifted kids. BUT THE POINT IS that these worst cases do happen, and it is worth taking the time to explore the other side of giftedness and the negative effects it can have on kids and adults. Why don't you read "Gifted Kids for Dummies" instead? Ooooh, snap!
This is NOT an overview of giftedness or an attempt to define giftedness or a list of things to do with gifted kids. There are way too many people complaining about how this book focuses on only the worst cases and is not applicable to their interests in gifted kids. BUT THE POINT IS that these worst cases do happen, and it is worth taking the time to explore the other side of giftedness and the negative effects it can have on kids and adults. Why don't you read "Gifted Kids for Dummies" instead? Ooooh, snap!
June 15, 2009
I borrowed this book from the library because of unfavorable reviews at Amazon; I was unsure of buying it -The book is very interesting/eye opening, covers a wide array of topics; psychology, sociology, the marketing of giftedness, religion, cognitive science and more - I don't think I have read a book that has so many bibliographic notes and references before - The Author obviously did a lot of reasearch. I'm impressed.
June 11, 2010
I found her ideas interesting and I enjoyed reading the book (I even read parts to Lance) but I didn't agree with most of her conclusions. I think the problem was that it was coming from the perspective of someone who grew up gifted but does not have children yet. It's a whole other ballgame when you throw kids into the mix. I wonder if her conclusions/ideas will change once she becomes a parent.
June 4, 2011
Not particularly cohesive; there really is no clearly identifiable thesis to this, other than perhaps relaying stories of floundering adults who were once prodigious as children. The author was caught in an awkward position of seeming to want to state opinions, but redacting them in the same sentence, perhaps in an effort to not come on too strong, avoid controversy, assuage the anxiety of feelings of inadequacy of the parents of gifted children...
May 2, 2016
I'm conflicted about this one - I think there are 2 completely different things that the author is addressing: so-called "hothouse" kids and actually gifted children. Both interesting topics, but personally I don't see them as one and the same. You can over-program, drill, teach, and attempt to specialize kids all you like, and you may get results, but at least in my experience the truly gifted children are the ones who seek out those experiences on their own.
July 8, 2007
The take home message of this book is that childhood "giftedness" more often than not doesn't predict achievement in adulthood, but rather leads kids to a false expectation that everything is going to come easily to them. It's more important to let kids find and pursue their own interests than to make sure they have French, violin, and ballet classes when they're 2 years old.
January 9, 2008
Fairly interesting account of the perils of "gifted children" - my favourite parts involved the dissection of the terms gifted, which is used in the USA and I think is crazy. What are the rest of the kids - chopped liver. But read very much like a pitch perfect fulfillment of a book proposal with "hooks" - a product sold and delivered.
July 31, 2011
Actually more like three stars, but I knew or suspected a lot of what the book covers from personal observations and psych classes (parents push kids to achieve young, intelligence tests are often culturally biased, etc.).
Some of the "enrichment" activities for kids under a year old, or pre-natal, were truly bizarre. I found the born-again teen preaching competitions even stranger, though.
Some of the "enrichment" activities for kids under a year old, or pre-natal, were truly bizarre. I found the born-again teen preaching competitions even stranger, though.
September 2, 2011
Maybe more two-star. It was a bunch of interesting vignettes. I don't think I really learned anything new, but Lee is interested in reading it and it may mean more to her. I think I expect too much out of general-interest nonfiction. Maybe I need to hit up a university library more.
January 26, 2014
Read only half of this one. She edges up to an argument and then doesn't really complete the idea. Comes back to it later but still gives it shallow treatment. Never really sure what she thinks about any of it. Also not enough evidence, need some meat.
December 5, 2007
I gave up trying to finish it and took it back to the library, but hope to pick it up again one of these days.
It was interesting and had lots of information and research behind it.
It was interesting and had lots of information and research behind it.
July 31, 2007
Not that I think I have a gifted child. I just want to see what the author has to say about the bogus Edutainment toys for children.
January 20, 2010
Definitely one I could relate to.
June 28, 2010
Interesting--never knew there was so much gifted culture.
May 14, 2011
Foarte Interesant!
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July 28, 20112008- Interesting but it took me a while to get into it. I think we are definitely shortchanging some of our gifted kids by cutting programs."
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews