#头条创作挑战赛 #
Since reading "Fighting for Education" in the first half of the year, I have fallen in love with this kind of book that analyzes education from a macro perspective. This type of book, solid information, rigorous analysis, a bit dull to read, but let people jump out of narrow thinking, with a clearer thinking context, to analyze their own situation.
Both authors of this book are economists and fathers. They use economics to understand parental behavior, including how economic conditions affect parental choices and how they interact with their children. The arguments explored in the book are diverse: differences in parenting in different countries; the change of upbringing from the past to the present; Parenting choices of different classes, genders, systems, etc...
Simply put, it is a book that allows readers to no longer think that their own parenting style is solely driven by themselves or local culture. The parenting style chosen by each parent is heavily influenced by socio-economic shifts and continues to change over time. For example, most of us in the United States tend to think that their parenting style tends to be liberal and laissez-faire, but as the inequality of wealth and wealth has rapidly expanded, they have also gradually become "helicopter parents" who actively help their children succeed. This is actually comparable to the Asian "tiger mother" and "chicken baby" culture.
To analyze parenting from an economic perspective, the author first defines the goals and limitations of parents:
• Goal - I want my child to be happy and have a good life.
• Limitations - Time and ability.
The author then categorizes parenting styles into three categories as parents' choices:
#专断 – Requires obedience and strictly controls the child's behavior through command and discipline.
#放任 - Take laissez-faire and let children make their own decisions and encourage them to be independent.
#威信 – Value both "independent self-will" and "disciplined obedience."
Finally, the authors then used various data sources, including the World Values Survey, the International Student Aptitude Survey, and papers by other economists, to analyze the choices and differences in parenting in different countries.
Based on the wonderful and varied arguments in the book, here are some interesting analysis of parenting choices:
After World War II, the decline in inequality in industrialized countries, coupled with the rise of new philosophical trends, made parents in the 1960s and 70s prefer a laissez-faire parenting style.
After the 1980s, political developments (Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom, President Reagan in the United States), increased returns on investment in education, and the information revolution gradually worsened the gap between the rich and the poor, and convinced parents that "the success of children depends on educational achievement", and the parenting style gradually changed from laissez-faire to intensive.
Inequality is central to parenting choices. Countries with average incomes, such as northern Europe, have a more laissez-faire attitude towards parents; In countries with uneven income, tiger mothers and helicopter parents are very common.
Arbitrary parenting was popular in Catholic countries such as France and Spain, where obedience and authority were valued, and corporal punishment is still common.
Parents in poor countries are more authoritarian, while in rich countries prestige and laissez-faire parenting are widespread.
Poor parents lack the resources to influence their children's behavior through the right to monetary remuneration, and can only use corporal punishment to control their children's behavior.
Prestige parents are more willing to help their children with homework, attend school classes, watch their children's sports and extracurricular activities, and praise the importance of academic excellence and excitement.
Prestigient parents employ persuasion strategies that attempt to shape the child's values and preferences, make decisions voluntarily that meet the parents' expectations, and internalize adult values and attitudes.
The authors conclude by stating that they do not particularly recommend any parenting style. Each type has its pros and cons, such as prestige parenting can strengthen children's motivation to succeed, but it can also stifle their autonomy and imagination; And helicopter parents may also create "Ma Bao".
In addition to summarizing and analyzing the above three parenting styles, the book also discusses the history of childcare: from the parenting methods of different classes before the Industrial Revolution, to the baby boom after World War II and the subsequent decline in fertility. It also details how policies and school systems in different countries affect the parenting style of local parents.
It is one thing to be able to see the parenting methods and difficulties of different countries through this professional book, whether it will inspire the reader, but it will definitely liberate the reader from the anxiety and uncertainty in parenting.
Your children are not your children, and your parenting style is not your free will. For me, my child's future success is important, but it is not something I can fully control. Only by cultivating a close parent-child relationship with children now, while ensuring that parents' financial ability can provide more educational options, the rest will be slowly adjusted in the unpredictable variables of the future!