How do our children learn? Any answer will emphasize their in-school learning, crucial for adult success. How do children learn in societies where schools are nonexistent or rare? Like us, parents in those “traditional” societies care about their children’s learning, equally crucial for their success. Join Dr. Grove as he explores five premodern societies to craft a mirror in which to compare our modern ways with traditional parenting and children’s learning. You’ll gain fresh insights for re-assessing how we are shepherding our American children to maturity.
Following his books about classroom learning, Dr. Grove explores children’s learning in societies where little, or even none, of their learning occurs in classrooms. How do those other children learn? And how do parents in those societies raise their children? Come along on a journey of discovery through traditional villages and camps on five continents. You’ll gain useful insights into your children’s learning – and into your parenting.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Cornelius N. Grove‘s mission has been to explain to Americans the historical and cultural reasons for their children’s comparatively mediocre performance in schools.
In 2013, Grove’s The Aptitude Myth revealed the deep historical origins of Americans’ belief that children’s inborn abilities, rather than their effort and determination, are largely responsible for their levels of school performance. Dr. Grove’s search for origins took him back to ancient Greece! Subtitle: How an Ancient Belief Came to Undermine Children’s Learning Today. Visit TheAptitudeMyth.info.
In 2017, Grove’s The Drive to Learn explored half of the cultural explanation for why American children’s learning in school is not as successful as that of their East Asian peers. This first half looked at differences in the values and activities of parental child-raising in the United States and East Asia. Subtitle: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about RAISING Students Who Excel. Visit TheDriveToLearn.info.
In 2020, Grove’s A Mirror for Americans revealed the second half of the cultural explanation for why our children’s school learning has always been eclipsed by their East Asian peers’ learning. This half probes differences in the values and activities of classroom teaching in the preschools and primary schools of the U.S. and East Asia. Subtitle: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about TEACHING Students Who Excel. Visit AMirrorForAmericans.info.
Now, in How OTHER Children Learn, Cornelius Grove shares what anthropologists have unearthed about children’s learning away from classrooms. To accomplish this, he visits five traditional societies, each on a different continent. Also revealed is how parents parent in the absence of modern middle-class expectations. Subtitle: What Five Traditional Cultures Tell Us about Parenting and Children’s Learning. You’re currently on this book’s website.