Reading Exercise 2 - 0 the Pre-History

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0 the Pre-HistoryBog'liq Sample Test (1)Reading Exercise 2
Read the introduction to an academic book about parenting. For questions
37-43, choose
the correct answer
and add your answer to the answer sheet.
Parenting in the 21
st
Century
I decided to write this book for several reasons. I was dissatisfied with parenting-advice literature, finding it to
be riddled with oversimplified messages, and often unrelated to or at odds with current scientific knowledge. I
also felt certain after years as a professor, researcher, and author of textbooks on child development, that
contemporary theory and research contain many vital, practical messages… ones crucial for parents to
understand if they are to effectively help their children develop. Furthermore, I’ve been approached on
countless occasions by uneasy parents, frustrated by a wide array of child-rearing issues. I became convinced,
therefore, that parents needed a consistent way of thinking about their role to guide them in making effective
decisions.
It’s little wonder that parents are perplexed about what approach to take to child rearing. Today’s world is one
which makes parenting exceedingly difficult. In many industrialised countries, the majority of mothers of pre-
school children are in the workforce, though not always through choice. This group in particular tends to lament
the lack of practical advice for parents in their child-rearing roles. Many parents simultaneously complain that
they’re busier than ever and that due to the growing demands of their jobs, they have little time for their children.
Nations of pressured, preoccupied parents have emerged in an era of grave public concern for the well-being of
youth.
It would seem from looking at current media that the younger generation are achieving less well than they
should and that they often display a worrying lack of direction, manifested at its worst in a variety of social
problems. These problems seem to have infiltrated even the most economically privileged sectors of the
population, affecting young people who, on the face of things, have been granted the best of life’s chances.
Accounts of children being deprived of their childhood and growing up too fast, or the dangers of promoting
materialism to young people abound in the media.
In many countries there is a growing sense of ‘youth alienation’ and parents rightly fear for their own children’s
futures. But agreement on what parents can and should do to shield children from underachievement and
demoralisation eludes those who seek it on the shelves of libraries or bookstores. Parenting advice has always
been in a state of flux, at no time more so than the present. While the fundamental goal of parenting – to instil
character and moral development – has stood firm amid the various passing fashions in child care over the
years, the approach to accomplishing this has varied considerably.
Some authors, convinced that parents are in control of what their children become, advise a ‘get tough’
approach. The educational parallel to this ‘parent-power’ stance is to train and instruct as early as possible, and
this has been justified by claims of maximising brain growth or securing high achievement by starting sooner.
Other authors, however, attribute many of today’s social problems to the excessive pressure put on children by
parents. According to these ‘child-power’ advocates, children have their own built-in timetables for maturing and
learning. Waiting for cues that children are ready, these experts say, will relieve the stress that fuels youth
discontent and rebellion. The reality, however, is that there are no hard-and-fast rules.
Current thinking on child-rearing advice mirrors historical shifts in theories of development and education. The
most disturbing trend in the literature has been a move to deny that parents make any notable contribution to
their children’s development. Indeed, according to one highly publicised book, children’s genes, and
secondarily their peer groups, not parents, dictate how children turn out. This public declaration of parental
weakness comes at a time when many busy parents are poised to retreat from family obligations, and, indeed, it
grants them licence to do so.
From the multitude of theories on nature and nurture, I have chosen one to serve as the framework for this
book: sociocultural theory, which originated with the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky. Early in the
20
th
century, he explained how children’s social experiences transform their genetic inheritance leading their
development forward and ensuring that they become competent, contributing members of society. Vygotsky
championed the idea that as children engage in dialogues with more expert members of their culture, they
integrate the language of those interactions into their inner mental lives and use it to think, overcome challenges
and guide their own behaviour.
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