Your Brain on Childhood

Your Brain on Childhood

This book reviews the consequences of raising children in today’s highly unnatural environments and suggests ways in which parents can learn to naturalize childhood again, so that a child’s environment gels with how the brain was designed to grow. In a clearly presented, accessible narrative, the author marshals scientific evidence from a wide array of fields to explain why there is a disconnect between the brain’s evolutionary history and the technology-centered present. Research from both human and animal studies indicates that brain development is fostered by consistent opportunities for face-to-face communication and freewheeling pretend play. The startling implication is that today’s structured, controlled, and fabricated surroundings are exactly wrong for developing brains. Instead of emphasizing technology and organized activities, parents and teachers could better help children learn by encouraging exploration, experimentation, and exposure to the real world. Recess, now often dismissed as a waste of time, should be considered an essential part of children’s cognitive and social development; lessons should be individualized as much as possible; and the current focus on homework and letter grades should be de-emphasized and eventually eliminated altogether. Fascinating and controversial, this well-researched discussion by an expert on child development will make parents and school systems rethink how we are raising our children. Gabrielle Principe, PhD (Spring City, PA), is associate professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at Ursinus College. She is the author (with A. F. Greenhoot, and S. J. Ceci) of the forthcoming Children’s Memory: Psychology and the Law , in addition to numerous articles in scientific journals. Your Brain On Childhood THE UNEXPECTED SIDE EFFECTS OF CLASSROOMS, BALLPARKS, FAMILY ROOMS, AND THE MINIVAN By Gabrielle Principe Prometheus Books Copyright © 2011 Gabrielle Principe All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-61614-425-8 Contents PREFACE...........................................................13CHAPTER 1: OLD BRAIN, NEW WORLD...................................21CHAPTER 2: SUPERSIZED CHILDHOOD...................................47CHAPTER 3: THE TWENTY-YEAR SCIENCE PROJECT........................69CHAPTER 4: NOT ENOUGH TORTOISE, TOO MUCH HARE.....................105CHAPTER 5: THE WORST SEAT IN THE HOUSE............................147CHAPTER 6: TOYING WITH CHILDREN...................................169CHAPTER 7: Wii LITTLE CHILDREN....................................185CHAPTER 8: ORGANIZED CRIME........................................201CHAPTER 9: AN INSIDE JOB..........................................215CHAPTER 10: OLD SCHOOL............................................233CHAPTER 11: EVOLUTIONARY BAGGAGE..................................257CHAPTER 12: THINKING OUTSIDE THE SANDBOX..........................277NOTES.............................................................287 Chapter One Old Brain, New World So, three children walk into a bar. "Hold on," you say. "How did three children, all at the same time, manage to turn off the Cartoon Network, power down their gaming consoles, and flick off their learning laptops; have no violin lesson, tutoring session, or Scout meeting scheduled; no soccer game, karate class, or ballet recital to attend; and no science fair project, cookie drive, or word study to do?" Good point. The setup is all but impossible in today's world. Not because the price of a Shirley Temple has inflated beyond the means of the typical four-year-old on a fixed weekly allowance, or because the usual kindergartner favors the trendy hookah lounge over the traditional bar scene. Nor is it because the hologram has made it exceedingly difficult for the ordinary middle schooler to make a good fake ID, but because childhood has changed. Really changed. When humans first appeared on the scene about two million years ago, families lived in small, nomadic bands and made their living hunting and gathering. Children spent their days roaming in packs and playing on their own in the out-of-doors. They improvised their own fun, regulated their own games, and made up their own rules. Children's education was informal, and new skills were learned out in the world. Such was childhood for more than 99 percent of human existence. Today, childhood is different. Infants find themselves strapped into bouncy seats and plunked in front of television sets. Toddlers are put away in play yards to listen to Baby MozartTM and use learning laptops. Preschoolers are given talking dollhouses, robotic pet dogs, and battery-powered frogs that teach them their ABCs. Older children sit in front of computer screens with earbuds connected to their iPods®, texting their friends on their touch phones to see if they can come over and play video games. They spend their weekdays inside classrooms, seated in rows of desks, reciting times tables, drill