I hope you are enjoying the beginning of break! I enjoyed leisurely reading the New York Times this morning wanted to share an interesting article about self-control in children, including its importance, varying cultural perspectives, and teaching it. It's part of a debate surrounding "Bringing Up Bebe", a French answer to last year's "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother". The article is billed as an "American" response written by neuroscientists at Princeton.
Here are couple excerpts that I found particularly resonating:
"Effective approaches for building self-control combine fun with progressively increasing challenges. Rather than force activities onto an unwilling child, take advantage of his or her individual tendencies. When children develop self-control through their own pursuit of happiness, no parental hovering is required. Find something that the child is crazy about but that requires active effort. Whether it’s compiling baseball statistics or making (but not passively watching) YouTube videos, passionate hobbies build mental staying power that can also be used for math homework.
Play allows children to practice skills that are useful in adult life. Young children build self-control through elaborate, imaginative games like pretending to be a doctor or a fireman...
The connection between self-control and social skills seems to be a two-way street. Helping children to identify their emotions and think through possible consequences before reacting improves self-control, in the classroom and at home. According to an analysis of 213 studies involving more than 270,000 students from kindergarten through high school, programs to enhance social and emotional development accelerate school achievement as much as interventions targeted at academic subjects."
Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/opinion/sunday/building-self-control-the-american-way.html?src=recg
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