Bringing up a better baby (and goodbye Dr. Spock) Part II 


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Bringing up a better baby (and goodbye Dr. Spock) Part II



The question of technique how to do it is an acute one now. The main task of any kindergarten teacher is to arrange all conditions so that a child could feel at home and get ready and adapted for the surrounding world. We, parents, are to help them despite our constant lack of time, because they are our children and our future.

Say you want to teach your six-month-old now to read. Write down a series of short, familiar words in large, clear letters on flashcards. Show the cards to your infant five or six times a day, simultaneously reciting the word written on each one. With his extraordinary retentive powers he’ll soon be learning hundreds of words, then phrases. The idea is to try to treat the baby’s mind as a sponge. By the age of three, Doman guarantees, your child will be entertaining himself and amazing your friends by reading “everything in sight”. In like manner he can learn to perform staggering mathematical stunts, or to distinguish and thoughtfully analyze the works of the Great Masters or the classical composers.

Doman declines to prove his claims to the scientific community; he’s happy, he says, as long as parents are convinced. These Professional Mothers (it is usually the mother) turn out to be paragons. Attractive young Mrs. Di Battista printed up 9,000 flashcards for five-year-old Michael. Stout, solemn Mrs. Pereira patiently explained that she “took time off” from her all-day routine of teaching eleven-year-old Josh to devote several weeks exclusively to making Josh’s French and Spanish flashcards for the coming year. Wasn’t Josh lonely? “No”, his proud mother replied. He was “socially excellent”. What does Dr. Benjamin Spock think of the better baby phenomenon? Like most octogenarians he thinks the world has gone to hell, he argues that competitive pressures are taking a psychic toll on most Americans, especially young people, and blames “excessive competitiveness” for the extraordinary rise in teenage suicide over the last twenty years. Efforts to improve infants’ cognitive abilities only prove to him that the scramble for success has finally invaded the cradle.

 

1) Have you ever thought of the problem “How to bring up a better baby?” What ideas have you got?

2) What’s your opinion about useful techniques of educating a better child?

3) What difficulties are there in upbringing boys and girls, sons and daughters?

4) What should we teach kids beginning with their early age?

5) Should parents try to teach their children before they go to school?

6) Should a child be allowed to do anything he likes when he is ill?

7) Should parents help their children with their homework?

8) What is more important in the process of upbringing: school (teachers, collective) or home (parents) background?

9) What home atmosphere encourages a child’s development?

 

Task 17. Read and discuss the text. Answer the questions after the text.

Children and Internet

According to the researchers of the American Academy of Pediatrics, social media sites have created a new phenomenon known as “Facebook depression”. The researchers recently warned parents about the possible dangers of networking websites on their children’s mental health. The report of a co-author Gwenn O’Keefe described the way social interaction is changing: “For some teens, social media is the primary way they interact socially, rather than at home or a friend’s house”, she said. Ms O’Keefe added: “A large part of this generation’s social and emotional development is occurring while on the Internet and on cellphones. Parents need to understand these technologies so they can relate to their children’s online world, and comfortably parent in that world”.

The report says it is essential for parents to be aware of how social media sites can affect children and that the Internet is not always a healthy environment for kids. The writers also urged parents to be on the lookout for cyberbulling, sexting and online predators. They recommended parents take an active role and discuss things like bulling, privacy and feeling down because of what’s happening on Facebook. A recent poll stated that 22 per cent of teenagers log on to a social media site more than 10 minutes a day and more than half at least once a day. However there are reports which say that Facebook helps youngsters, by allowing them to express themselves, and doesn’t isolate them for society.

 

1) What is your attitude towards social media sites? What’s your favourite one?

2) Should parents control the children’s access to the Internet?

3) What have the researchers recently warned parents about?

4) What should parents be on the lookout for when their children log on to social media sites?

5) What do the researchers recommend to parents?

Task 18. Read and discuss the text. Answer the questions after the text.



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