Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think And What We Can Do About It by Jane M. Healy ISBN: 0-684-85620-4 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Parents: If You REALLY Care for Your Kids
Comment: Healy's basic premise in this book is that human minds undergo actual physical changes with external stimuli, with different kinds of learning and stimuli producing different effects. She also attempts to show that while the human mind is pretty plastic, it is not infinitely so in that some physical characteristics of the brain are more or less fixed by the time the child reaches adolescence.
With this premise, she attempts to relate how a juvenile mind constantly exposed to fast-paced but unmeaningful visual stimuli (the average TV show) is not prepared adequately to face the demands of school. Thus the worsening of reading skills of today's schoolkid, the increasing prevalence of ADHD and tuned-out kids, or kids who just don't think.
Her arguments are often backed with scientific research, although a good amount of the evidence is anecdotal where scientific data is lacking, mostly gleaned from neuro-scientists and educators with strong suspicions. Her case on the whole is rather strong and convincing.
The solution in short for parents: good ol' fashioned reading and spending time on meaningful communication with your kids, and turn off that TV! Okay, at least severely limit TV-time, since Healy does name a couple of suitable children's shows (Sesame Street is NOT recommended!).
I would recommend this book for parents and educators.
For parents, if you REALLY care for your kids, and are willing to make sacrifices for them. Otherwise don't read this book.
Rating: 4
Summary: Definately a "must read" for parents and teachers.
Comment: I would highly recommend this book to both parents and teacher alike. Healy maintains an interesting writing style throughout the text, and actively engages her audience. While I do feel the text is rather long, it doesn't dissolve into random banter. The book stays focused until the end, providing many provoking lines of thought. For instance: Since the introduction of standardized schooling over a hundred years ago, the rate of literacy has radically declined. How did we go from a nation of unschooled but highly literate people, to a nation of overschooled and illiterate people? Such illuminations, beg discussion.
Rating: 4
Summary: Important content, less than riviting style
Comment: The difficulty I had with this book is the impression I got that the author did research on a variety of areas relating to brain development and then loosely connected these areas in broader sections. I got lost in some of the data and conclusions, and would sometimes forget what the point of a given section was. She seemed to take too many different directions to prove her point, as opposed to having information that built upon itself.
Having said that, I did find many of Healy's conclusions important, e.g., what is taught in school today is not what is important, but what is easy to measure. She also educated me on the importance of "Whole-language" learning for children, which I don't necessarily agree with and is controversial in my state, Massachusetts. Concerning television, she devotes a whole chapter to condemning Sesame Street. I agree with this assessment, but thought the subject was better exposed in Marie Winn's "The Plug-In Drug" mainly because the latter described the marketing techniques employed by the program.
My favorite chapter was the last, where she explores the future of human brains. Some provocative food for thought is mentioned like: "now, with a flood of data available, the educated mind is not the one that can master facts, but the one able to ask the winnowing question."
The detriment of television on developing children is difficult to prove, I'm learning from reading this book and other similar material. The lack of research on the effects of television is alarming to the author and to me. She has convinced me that television does affect brain development and needs to be better understood. But even the steps to proceed to more understanding are not being taken, which is suspicious.
 |
Title: FAILURE TO CONNECT: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds -- and What We Can Do About It by Jane M. Healy ISBN: 0684855399 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: Your Child's Growing Mind by Jane Healy ISBN: 0385469306 Publisher: Main Street Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
 |
Title: The Plug-In Drug: Television, Computers and Family Life by Marie Winn ISBN: 0142001082 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 30 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: Magic Trees of the Mind : How to Nurture Your Child's Intelligence, Creativity, and Healthy Emotions from Birth Through Adolescence by Marian Diamond, Janet Hopson ISBN: 0452278309 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
 |
Title: The Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media's Effect on Our Children by James P. Steyer, Chelsea Clinton ISBN: 0743405838 Publisher: Atria Books Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
