The Gardener and The Carpenter, by Alison Gopnik (Book Review Pedcast by Doc Smo and Sonya Corina Williams)

I'm always looking for interesting books that I think parents will find thought-provoking. In today's pedcast, I am going to introduce you to a book that will do just that. So kick back and enjoy our take on The Carpenter and The Gardener, by Allison Gopnik Purchase, The Gardener and the Carpenter with the link below and you will not only get Amazon's best price but you will help this blog/podcast. Gardener and the Carpenter Musical Intro Overview of Gardener/Carpenter It’s not every day that you find a developmental psychologist and a philosopher with a strong interest in evolution, writing a parenting book giving advice to today's parents. I must say that her unique background and scientific perspective makes this a very interesting read and probably explains why she has gleaned so much attention from the media.  As her title reveals, Dr. Gopnik divides the craft of raising children into two broad categories - the precise and measured process a carpenter uses to build something of wood versus the skill of growing a garden, with all the environmental variables and obstacles one encounters there. Professor Gopnik sees the techniques used by a carpenter as inflexible and prescribed whereas the gardener being the opposite - flexible and changeable. Dr. Gopnik sees modern parenting (and education for that matter) as following the carpenter model rather than the gardener approach, even though she contends that there is a wealth of scientific evidence that the adults a family ultimately produce, has little to do with the carpenter decisions that today's parents think are essential to effective child-rearing. Interesting things I Learned from Dr. Gopnik If you choose to read The Gardener and the Carpenter, expect to encounter many new concepts, many of which are rooted in experimental biology. For instance, Dr. Gopnik thinks that much of the uniqueness of humans stems from our long childhoods.  All the time human children spend under the protection of elders allows them to learn a lot, develo