CURRICULUM GUIDE FOR S.C. TEACHER CADET COURSE | EXPERIENCING EDUCATION, TENTH EDITION
Theme I: Experiencing Learning
Unit 3: Growth and Development
Summary of Dr. David Elkind’s Major Points in The Hurried Child
Since David Elkind's publication of his landmark book The Hurried Child in the 1980s, the
term "hurried child" has come to embody the view held by many that children are growing up
too fast too soon. Elkind says that the phenomenon is becoming more common and accepted.
He points to the fact that young, would-be parents get showered with information that would
have them believe that if they will just use the right products and procedures, they can achieve
fantastic results. They can raise their baby's IQ's and have them doing gymnastics, reading,
and swimming before they are three months old! In other words, the media would have us believe that the earlier and harder we push children, the more outstanding the results.
Elkind contends that the value of such early pushing is not supported by the evidence. However, what is supported by quite a bit of evidence is the fact that children are suffering from
more stress symptoms than ever before.
Now that this "hurrying" process has been going on for almost twenty years, many of the hurried children have become hurried teenagers. Stress symptoms in young people have increased by an alarming 300%.
Consider the following ways children are hurried:
• Designer fashions are created for very young children (e.g., Gap for Kids, Limited
Too, Baby Gap, Nike for Kids) and even lingerie for little girls.
Make-up, perfume, and nylon stockings are marketed for the elementary age
student.
Result: When children dress as adults in adult clothing, they tend to feel and act
like adults, but do not think like adults or have the judgment of adults.
• Parents are pressured to make sure their children have all of the right “stuff" to be
accepted. For example, a child's ears are pierced because all of the other girls
have theirs done, or a young child receives a buzz haircut to make him into the
"little man," although he is terrified of the electric clippers.
Result: The message comes through to the child that behaviors and items meant
for older people are acceptable for him if everyone else is doing them or has
them.
• Young people are pressured into competitive sports at too early an age.
Result: Thirty percent develop life-long injuries because their bodies are not fully
developed; adults push winning, and that results in many young people sitting on
the bench much of the time feeling labeled as a failure. Those that do get to play
can get "sports burnout" by high school.
• Young girls often engage in cheerleading wearing skimpy costumes and train to be
in beauty pageants, causing high levels of stress.
Result: We reinforce "jock" stereotypes and outdated sex role images at an early
age.
• Children’s camps are now more professionalized achievement camps than
recreational fun camps, often featuring major sports figures.
Result: We have turned what used to be play into work. Children lose the
benefit of spontaneous play (learning about interpersonal and social relations)
when sports are over-structured by adults.
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