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Hothouse Kids

A devastating indictment of the ?gifted child? myth. The effort to produce ?gifted? children through an exhausting regimen of early (and ever-earlier) training has grown into a troubling national phenomenon. With less free playtime and overwhelming pressure to achieve, the kids are the ones who suffer. Investigative journalist Alissa Quart knows the terrain firsthand, having herself negotiated the gifted-child label. With phenomenal research and sharp insight, she takes a damning look at the industry that profits from marketing educational products to enhance giftedness and questions the correlation between rigorous early enrichment and higher achievement. A thoughtful, sometimes critical look at the excessive ambition foisted upon children, Hothouse Kids is essential reading for parents, teachers, and anyone concerned about education.

Kids Talk

Between early childhood and adulthood, language acquisition is succeeded by a bloom of repertoire for managing interaction, a growing sensitivity to the relation of language and society, an expanding ability to wield power through the strategic use of language, and an increasing sophistication in framing speech activities. This book examines a wide range of language practices among school-age children and teenagers, using data from naturally occurring recorded talk and from careful observation of interaction in peer groups. The contributors analyze talk at play, at school, and at work, documenting the growing communicative skills of young people while always focusing on what young speakers themselves do with (and through) language. Theoretical constructs to which the contributors appeal include Goffman's notion of footing and Hymes' communicative competence, as well as multiple characterizations of discourse structure. The chapters show older children as strategic language users, dynamic actors who are often concerned with defining themselves as a distinctive group, different from adults, yet who just as often display proficiency at sophisticated discourse activities that presage those of adulthood.

Raising Musical Kids

Does music make kids smarter? At what age should a child begin music lessons? Where should you purchase an instrument? What should parents expect from a child's teachers and lessons? Raising Musical Kids answers these and many other questions as it covers everything from assembling a listening library for kids, to matching a child's personality with an instrument's personality, to finding musical resources in your community. Knowing that children can--and usually do--get most of their music education within the public school system, the author explores at length the features and benefits of elementary and secondary school programs, and shows how parents can make the schools work for them and their children. Throughout, Cutietta emphasizes the joy of participating in music for its own sake. Raising Musical Kids is a book that parents everywhere will treasure as a complete road map for developing their child's musical abilities.