The Hurried Child: Growing up too Fast too soon - Essay Example

It is a reality that we live in a fast-paced world. The new millennium has brought various changes in our lifestyle that value speed and efficiency. Modern technology makes it possible to facilitate processes which otherwise takes time and energy. Elkind states: "We are a time-oriented and time-regulated society and we impart these values to our children. We hurry our children, because we hurry ourselves." (Elkind, 1981). Such a powerful insight can provoke parents into assessing their true motivation for racing their children through childhood.

Are they really doing it for their children because of the demands of modern living, or are they doing it for themselves, to keep up their reputation as good parents who raise “super children”? Elkind backs up his arguments with research. Educators and Psychologists before him have already studied the nature of the child, and he takes on their sound theories. In the seventeenth century, Jean-Jacques Rosseau began to focus on the learner’s nature instead of the subject matter to be learned.

He theorized that learning by discovery is much more effective than being merely “spoon-fed” information. He also empowered the learner by advising that the more a learner is able to control the environment, the more effective the education. Rosseau believed that education should conform to the child’s nature, and explained that people develop through various stages. Different forms of educational strategies should be adjusted to be appropriate to each developmental stage. Jean Piaget came up with the Stages of Cognitive Development because he believed that intellectual development is influenced by both maturation and experience.

“Cognitive development is indicated by a growing ability to plan, to employ strategies for remembering and to seek solutions to problems.” (Brewer, 2001, p.26) Like Rosseau before him, Piaget describes that cognitive