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  • The Gardener and the Carpenter

  • What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children
  • By: Alison Gopnik
  • Narrated by: Erin Bennett
  • Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (24 ratings)

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The Gardener and the Carpenter

By: Alison Gopnik
Narrated by: Erin Bennett
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Publisher's Summary

Caring deeply about our children is part of what makes us human. Yet the thing we call "parenting" is a surprisingly new invention. In the past 30 years, the concept of parenting and the multibillion-dollar industry surrounding it have transformed child care into obsessive, controlling, and goal-oriented labor intended to create a particular kind of child and therefore a particular kind of adult.

In The Gardener and the Carpenter, pioneering developmental psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik argues that the familiar 21st-century picture of parents and children is profoundly wrong - it's not just based on bad science, it's bad for kids and parents, too. Drawing on the study of human evolution and her own cutting-edge scientific research into how children learn, Gopnik shows that although caring for children is profoundly important, it is not a matter of shaping them to turn out a particular way. Children are designed to be messy and unpredictable, playful and imaginative, and very different both from their parents and from each other. The variability and flexibility of childhood lets them innovate, create, and survive in an unpredictable world. "Parenting" won't make children learn - but caring parents let children learn by creating secure, loving environments.

©2016 Alison Gopnik (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"Narrator Erin Bennett commendably presents this unique audiobook on raising children. Alison Gopnik, an expert on children's development, lambasts the current style of parenting, which she calls the 'carpenter method' because it relies on an established blueprint (as in making a chair) to produce a successful but predictable child who also excels at test taking. Gopnik prefers the 'gardener approach,' which gives the child love, encouragement, and freedom to play and imagine, which she says results in a more creativity. Bennett's delivery of Gopnik's passionate argument is appealing and easy to understand. She also captures Gopnik's subtle humor and supporting quotes from experts. The moving conclusion comes full circle as it discusses end-of-life commitments that adult children have to their elderly parents." ( AudioFile Magazine)

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Fantastic

Filled with research and incredibly well written. Entertaining and intelligent. A very helpful and insightful book.

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As poetic as non-fiction can get

Anyone who has children, is thinking of having children, doesn’t want children, or was, at some time in their life, a child should listen to this book. This is especially so if you’ve ever wondered whether you’re doing the ‘right’ thing by your child. Thanks Alison!

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