The Hurried Child

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The Hurried Child By: David Elkind, Ph.D. Maisha Alexander 10.19.2009 1. Summarize “It is children’s right to be children, to enjoy the pleasures, and to suffer the pains of a childhood that is infringed on by hurrying.”(David Elkind, Ph.D.) This book primarily deals with the different pressures placed on children due to changes in society. The importance of this book is to bring attention to the emotional, mental, and physical stress placed on American children by their families (mostly adults). It talks about the importance of children to experience the four stages of adolescence. The four stages include “sensorimotor” (birth to two years), the “preoperational”(two to six), the “concrete operational” (six to ten) and the “formal operational”(eleven and twelve). The concrete operational period is the most mentioned in the book. This is when a child learns the difference between manipulations of things versus symbols. During this period it is critical that a child learns to deal with their peers as equals unlike an adult-child relationship which is unilateral (where adults have control). Often children are “robbed” during this period because parents place, what the book refers to as, emotional and responsibility overload on their children. An example of responsibility overload is when parents force their children to play sports. It is no longer an interest of the child to play the sport for fun. Parents start their kids off early in organized sports, expecting the children to possess adult like skills in the sport. An example of responsibility overload is when parents confide in their children about “adult-like” problems. When a child is exposed to marital problems, financial problems, or anything of that nature it forces them to take on a barrier that should not be intended for them to endure. They are expected to be the confidant
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