In this landmark assessment of the roots of the crisis in education the author examines the reasons why children today are less able to concentrate, less able to absorb and analyze information, less able literally to think than the generations that preceded them. Meaningful learning, the kind that will equip our children and our society for the uncertain challenges of the future, occurs at the intersection of developmental readiness, curiosity, and significant subject matter. Yet many of today’s youngsters, at all socioeconomic levels, are blocked from this goal by detours erected in our culture, schools, and homes. Fast-paced lifestyles, coupled with heavy media diets of visual immediacy, beget brains misfitted to traditional modes of academic learning. The book is a fascinating exploration of today’s much-deplored decline in school achievement. The author conveys the relationship between language, learning and brain development, then explains why television viewing and present-day lifestyles sabotage language acquisition, thinking, and personal success. The author makes it clear that parents, schools, and the culture at large have some serious chances to make. Proving that the basic intelligence of children is not at issue, the author shows how parents and teachers can make a critical difference by making them good learners not only during their school years but lifelong.
Authors: Jane M. Healy
Publishers: Simon & Schuster
Date of Publication: 1990
No. of pages: 304