“We have this idea that earlier is better, more is better, faster is better,” says renowned psychologist Madeline Levine … but is it? The author of the recently published Teach Your Children Well talks about the increasing push toward early achievement and how much good (or harm) it does our children in the long run.
Want more? Learn about the “gifted” curse from Stanford researcher Carol Dweck.
Video transcript
We have this idea that early is better, more is better, faster is better. The research is incredibly clear – it makes no differences if your child is reading at 3, or 5, or 7. In Finland, the world鈥檚 exemplar right now in education, they don鈥檛 start until 7. So, you know it鈥檚 interesting. It鈥檚 an arena that we actually have a lot of data on and yet it鈥檚 sort of not getting through. It doesn鈥檛 matter and in many cases it鈥檚 better not to do it earlier because it鈥檚 out of the sync with what the natural trajectory. A 3-year-old should be playing and manipulating the world and not necessary having flash cards or sitting in front of Baby Einstein.
