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Thursday, July 7, 2011

No One Best Way To Parent, No One Best Way To Teach | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

No One Best Way To Parent, No One Best Way To Teach | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

No One Best Way To Parent, No One Best Way To Teach

That child-rearing theories have swung back and forth between disciplinarians and children-bonding-with-parents, between child-centered and parent-centered is obvious to middle-age Moms and Dads who think but a moment about their parents and grand-parents. Psychologists and novelists have taught us a great deal about parents’ child-raising practices and how children’s growth physically, emotionally, and intellectually can flourish or get stunted. Still, uncertainty hovers over what is best practice for parents today.

The current mantra among educated elites is to build your children’s self-esteem and make them into happyadults which might explain the media and blogosphere furor erupting among those same elites over Amy Chua’sTiger Mom recipe for high-performing, anxious, and successful daughters. The furor confirms that in 2011, even certified experts can not tell parents how to raise their children.

Because parental values of what constitutes a good life, character, and behavior drive child-rearing, facts and evidence about child development get drafted to support one view or another, no certainty is in sight for those parents who haunt libraries and bookstores for the most recent guru’s published advice on raising babies and