Do you want the child to grow up successful? Study it, offer suitable classes, instill a love of study and overcome difficulties. This conclusion was reached by the authors of the book “Recipe: Secrets of raising successful children” Tatsha Robertson and Ronald Ferguson. They tell what strategic education is and why it is important to teach a child to read to a kindergarten.
Watching those who have achieved success, many ask themselves: how they succeed? It’s all about natural talent? How they were able to realize innate abilities and achieve success?
Journalist Tatsha Robertson began to ask these questions ten years ago, working as a correspondent in the newspaper Boston Globe. She often had an interview with famous people, draw up a dossier on them, and she noticed that many parents brought up many in a similar way.
Tatsha contacted Ronald Ferguson, an economist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who devoted a career for the study of uneven education quality in the United States. She wanted to find out whether it was possible to learn “strategically” to educate children and, if so, what can be advised to parents who want to maximize the innate abilities of children and help to be successful regardless of circumstances.
The parents of those who achieved success, even before their birth, knew what they want to see their children in adulthood
The economist was sure that it was possible. Together they began to investigate the issue in detail. The result of many years of work was a book in which eight main recommendations for parents who dream of raising a successful child are being understood in detail. For example, the researchers found that those who achieved success usually knew how to read even before going to kindergarten, and their parents knew before their birth what they wanted to see their children in adulthood.
Robertson and Ferguson agreed to talk more about their new book and the results of their many years of research.
What are they are successful children that you write about?
Robertson: They are very smart and study well, they themselves control their lives, easy to rise. They were taught to constantly set goals and achieve them.
Ferguson: We compiled a small equation: mind + goal + independence = full implementation. In the book we write about parents who understand how to direct their children along the path that will best reveal their entire potential.
Much of what you describe, it is important for parents to do on time. For example, continuously engage in the development of a child according to specific methods from birth to five years. Moms and dads that you are talking about, were engaged in special cards, taught to read even before the kindergarten. But what, if, for example, the child is already four years old, he does not know how to read and is unlikely to learn in the near future? Time is missed?
Ferguson: It’s not about whether the four -year -old can read. It is important whether he instilled a love of study, whether he likes to overcome difficulties. Parents can prepare him for this, for this they need to know their baby well and constantly give him tasks, the solution of which will inspire and give confidence, but not so complicated that his hands are lowered. The main thing is the general mood and worldview of parents, their understanding of what is important.
Parents should know the child so well as to understand which classes will bring him more benefit at a particular moment
Some people think: “Well, why make a preschooler learn to read?”But no one forces anyone, we are not talking about any coercion. In the book, we emphasize that the child should do everything with hunting. The meaning is not that every baby can grow up with a star or genius. We say primarily that parents should study their children. They should know the child so well as to understand what developing classes will bring him the most benefit at this particular moment.
You describe eight roles playing “skillful parents”. Something surprises you in these roles?
Ferguson: One of the roles play skilled parents is the role of the “philosopher”. Those who have a clear goal in life clearly imagine what problems of the world they want to solve. Such parents from the very birth of a child in all seriousness see a thinker in him. When a child asks questions that seem too complicated or too philosophical for such a crumb, they carefully consider answers.
Robertson: I will give an example. A young man lives in Ghana, Sangu Delle. When he was only four or five years old, his father – a village doctor – already conducted philosophical conversations with him. Sanga asked, for example: “Which of the virtues is most important?”And they discussed Aristotle. Father spoke with the child as an adult and did not always immediately answer questions. Sometimes he thought for a couple of days before returning to the conversation.
In the book you describe large families in which one child has achieved success, but the rest are not. Why is this happening?
Ferguson: It happens that if the child is incredibly successful, his brothers and sisters understand that they are not able to compete with him. If parents notice this in time, they can give the rest of the children to understand that they love and value them, regardless of marks and other achievements. But sometimes the point is that parents especially love the first -born and pay him more attention.
Robertson: We talked with families in which all children grew up my stake casino very successful. In many cases, parents brought up each of them in their own way and were able to develop his best qualities in each. They studied children and found an individual approach to each. Of course, all parents complained about the lack of time. But those dads and mothers from whom we took an interview for the book always strategically planned the time that we spent on children.
