Description
most Parenting Guides Begin With The Question How Can We Get Kids To Do What They're Told? And Then Proceed To Offer Various Techniques For Controlling Them. In This Truly Groundbreaking Book, Nationally Respected Educator Alfie Kohn Begins Instead By Asking, What Do Kids Need And How Can We Meet Those Needs? What Follows From That Question Are Ideas For Working with Children Rather Than Doing Things to Them. One Basic Need All Children Have, Kohn Argues, Is To Be Loved Unconditionally, To Know That They Will Be Accepted Even If They Screw Up Or Fall Short. Yet Conventional Approaches To Parenting Such As Punishments (including Time-outs), Rewards (including Positive Reinforcement), And Other Forms Of Control Teach Children That They Are Loved Only When They Please Us Or Impress Us. Kohn Cites A Body Of Powerful, And Largely Unknown, Research Detailing The Damage Caused By Leading Children To Believe They Must Earn Our Approval. That's Precisely The Message Children Derive From Common Discipline Techniques, Even Though It's Not The Message Most Parents Intend To Send. More Than Just Another Book About Discipline, Though, unconditional Parenting Addresses The Ways Parents Think About, Feel About, And Act With Their Children. It Invites Them To Question Their Most Basic Assumptions About Raising Kids While Offering A Wealth Of Practical Strategies For Shifting From Doing To To Working With Parenting Including How To Replace Praise With The Unconditional Support That Children Need To Grow Into Healthy, Caring, Responsible People. This Is An Eye-opening, Paradigm-shattering Book That Will Reconnect Readers To Their Own Best Instincts And Inspire Them To Become Better Parents. publishers Weekly author Of Nine Books, Including The Controversial Punished By Rewards, Kohn Expands Upon The Theme Of What's Wrong With Our Society's Emphasis On Punishments And Rewards. Kohn, The Father Of Young Children, Sprinkles His Text With Anecdotes That Shore Up His Well-researched Hypothesis That Children Do Best With Unconditional Love, Respect And The Opportunity To Make Their Own Choices. Kohn Questions Why Parents And Parenting Literature Focus On Compliance And Quick Fixes, And Points Out That Docility And Short-term Obedience Are Not What Most Parents Desire Of Their Children In The Long Run. He Insists That Controlling Parents Are Actually Conveying To Their Kids That They Love Them Conditionally-that Is, Only When They Achieve Or Behave. Tactics Like Time-out, Bribes And Threats, Kohn Claims, Just Worsen Matters. Caustic, Witty And Thought-provoking, Kohn's Arguments Challenge Much Of Today's Parenting Wisdom, Yet His Assertion That The Way Kids Learn To Make Good Decisions Is By Making Decisions, Not By Following Directions Rings True. Kohn Suggests Parents Help Kids Solve Problems; Provide Them With Choices; And Use Reason, Humor And, As A Last Resort, A Restorative Time Away (not A Punitive Time-out). This Lively Book Will Surely Rile Parents Who Want To Be Boss. Those Seeking Alternative Methods Of Raising Confident, Well-loved Children, However, Will Warmly Embrace Kohn's Message. (mar.) Forecast: Kohn Is A Controversial And Popular Author/speaker, Well Regarded By Scholars And Educators. This Title Should Appeal To Parents Who Want To Explore The Whys And Not Just The Hows Of Raising Kids. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
