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The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon (3rd edition)
Customer Reviews
Rating:  - Great book for teachers and parents.
The Hurried Child by David Elkin is a great resources and a must read for parents and teachers. This book outlines many of the causes associated with the hurrying of children in today's society. Some of the causes, such as media, are apparent to most adults; however, there are other causes, such as specific types of parent and child relationships, which are not so apparent. This book explains what the role of the parent should be and the detrimental effects of a parent not fulfilling this roles. Elkin explains that many children welcome the hurrying at younger ages, because it gives them the illusion that they are maturing. In contrast, by the time these children reach adolescence they resent their previous hurrying and place the blame on their parents. It is this early hurrying which leads many of today's adolescence to engage in less than honorable activities.
While many causes are explained, Elkin does not list many solutions. Of course, a solution would be to stop implementing the causes, but how does one go about correcting the hurrying once it has begun or once the hurried child has reached adolescence? These questions could be addressed in more depth.
Despite the lack of listed solutions, I would recommend this book to any parent or teacher. It is helpful to understand what hurries our children and how the hurrying affects them. This knowledge will help us understand the grief of our youth thus, helping us to become better teachers and parents.
Rating: - Stressing the point about Stress
I read this book a few months back and I'm still not decided on whether I 'loved' this book or not. I did like the book. It provided a lot of information I wasn't aware of, but I'm not sure I really liked the set-up of the book or some of the content. The main focus of this book is basically what hidden aspects of growing up stress a child out, and how that stress affects a childs development. He touches on some of the basic aspects like divorce, and death, but most of the book focus's on things that force a child to grow up too quickly. The main conclusion of every single argument in the book is anything that forces a child to grow up too quickly or puts pressure on a child beyond their natural capabilites is stressful for a child.
The first half of the book is kind of a summary of the second half of the book, which almost makes the first half pointless. The whole time I was reading it I was getting a lot of interesting information/opinions with very little proof of the points he was making. But the authors points and the information he was providing was interesting. The best chapter of the first half of the book is the chapter on Lapware (computerized learning devices). He provided great arguments, and very valid proof to back up his claims. His information would be great to base future lapware studies on. I don't want to blow this chapter for you, but his basic point is that lapware doesn't teach a child anything that he/she doesn't already know.
The second half of this book is extremely well organized, and perfect for parents, or anyone with basic knowledge of child-development. I study child development and I don't know that I've read a better book or text-book that puts Piagets development periods or Erikksons theories into better context than this book does. The way he was able to use those theories in connection with his own research, and other research was excellent. It almost makes me wish this book had a broader range of topic. I could apply the information in this book to pretty much every child I know. If you have a child that shows any self-confidence problems this book will be very helpful to you. There's nothing mentioned in the title or the description about self-confidence, but after reading the book it's easy to see how the demands put on your child affect their confidence.
There is a lot of basic information on various topics from the basic biological reactions of stress, to how schools operate. He makes very compelling arguments against the idea of "early is better" in education. He also provides good evidence in favor of keeping the arts in schools by showing that activities like gym, music, and art help children relieve stress which helps them focus more on academics (in addition to their artistic values).
At times I found some of the information in the book repetitive. He touches on certain subjects like divorce, drugs, and education numerous times. It's all good information, but I would have liked to have read more on media effects and social aspects with other peers than was offered.
Perhaps the best thing about this book is that it provides a good balance between statistical data based research without being so dense it's not readable by an average parent. The writing style is very basic, and his research is based on stats just as much as his own experiences as a therapist. So he backs up any technical data with a personal example to explain it and back it up. It's somewhat of a perfect book for parents looking to understand more about their children, and people looking for an easy book to read with solid research.
Rating:  - Keen Insite
Elkind shows a keen insite into the brain of youth. A must read for parents concerned about the progress of their child.
Rating: - The Hurried Child by Elkind
The author cautions against rushing life for young people
and placing too many artificial pressures on them. These
pressures come in the form of standardized tests, overscheduling
and excessive concentration on child competence issues instead
of allowing young people to mature. Children are in essence
miniature adults. In addition, the author cautions against
assembly-line learning. Type A competitive children grow into
adults with more cholesterol in the blood than normal.
On international comparison tests, American students tend to
achieve lower scores despite all the pressure to do well.
Only 1/5 of 17 year olds can write a persuasive essay.
Clearly, the author has some important points to make.
The readers should heed this advice and apply it accordingly.
There is a need for balance in life. In this respect, the author
has some important points to teach college administrators and
parents. A wide constituency of educators needs to read this
book dispassionately and apply it for the benefit of students.
Rating: - Good book; a little too easy on us parents!
In The Hurried Child, Dr. Elkind does a competent job of describing a seriously problematic trend- the increasing inability and even unwillingness to appropriately "cushion" children from the modern world. The message is simple and eloquent: millions of children are simply not experiencing a proper childhood for a multitude of reasons. For some, it may be overcompetitive sports; for others, early sexuality or economic exploitation (children wielding more money and being strongly pursued as a consumer group). But regardless of form, hurrying leaves children trying to deal with adult concerns. While such kids may seem sophisticated, the deeper reality is that they are still children. This false maturation interferes with real maturation, and leads to problems in adolescence and adulthood.
Dr. Elkind gives this book more popular appeal by making his case gently- there are no "Dr. Laura" type challenges here. But if the reader will think through the implications of this book, it is clear that children are being "hurried" because parents aren't making the kinds of choices necessary for a fulfilling and protective family life. Instead, they pursue personal, material and status-oriented goods, very often to the detriment of the family. This is not because they don't care for their kids, but because our culture is so steeped in radical individualism and materialism that the very idea of what a family is supposed to be is lost. It is no surprise that the children suffer as a result, in terms of both emotional and character development.
I would propose a more profound solution than the "moderation" one to be found in this book. The cult of the individual needs to be overthrown. Parents should never make family-altering choices based solely on personal desires; the good of the children and the family unit as a whole should strongly influence what each member does. In addition, the excessive emphasis on "achieving independence" in childhood should be balanced with a recognition that all children need to be nurtured according to their stage of development. Children are not ready to be "individuals" in the adult sense of the term, which is why they are so easily influenced by peers, advertisers and celebrities. A strong, loving and non-hurrying family is a far more healthy source of influence than such factors. The more parents recognize and act upon these realities, the less kids will be "hurried", and the more they will be "trained up in the way they should go."
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