The New York Times bestseller that provides a bold challenge to the conventional wisdom about early childhood, with a pragmatic program to encourage parents and teachers to rethink how and where young children learn best by taking the child's eye view of the learning environment.
Erika Christakis is an early childhood educator and school consultant. She was a faculty member at the Yale Child Study Center and is a Massachusetts-certified teacher (pre-K through second grade) and licensed preschool director. An honors graduate of Harvard College, she has advanced degrees from Johns Hopkins University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Lesley University's Graduate School of Education. She has written about children for The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, TIME.com, and the New York Daily News. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
Gold medal winner of the Nautilus Book Awards, 2016
"A fervent rebuke of academic-style early education -- testing,
flashcards and so on -- in favor of a more nuanced approach,
centered on the child and based on play."
--The Washington Post "[Christakis'] new ideas, analysis and
methods serve to guide and support teachers, policy makers and
parents in understanding the inner lives of children to stimulate
their learning and "help young children be young children."
--The New York Times "Christakis . . . expertly weaves academic
research, personal experience and anecdotal evidence into her book
. . . a bracing and convincing case that early education has
reached a point of crisis . . . her book is a rare thing: a serious
work of research that also happens to be well-written and personal
. . . engaging and important."
--The Washington Post "What kids need from grown-ups (but aren't
getting)...an impassioned plea for educators and parents to put
down the worksheets and flash cards, ditch the tired craft projects
(yes, you, Thanksgiving Handprint Turkey) and exotic vocabulary
lessons, and double-down on one, simple word: play."
--NPR.org
"The Importance of Being Little is a must-read
for anyone with a two- to five-year-old, as well as for preschool
professionals. In an ideal world, Christakis, a true defender of
childhood, would have a national position in early childhood
education."
--Diana Divecha, The Greater Good Science Center at the University
of California, Berkeley "Erika Christakis has her pulse on modern
American education, and she wants to help you understand it. She
helps explain the doom and gloom so many parents of preschoolers
feel about education, providing a much needed context to better
understand it--and, hopefully, change it....This mom would
encourage any parent of a young toddler to pick up a copy. Arm
yourself with the information you will need to be an effective
advocate for your child. Her language is accessible, engaging and
flows easily. Her research and insights made a believer out of me,
while also helping me see a clear path to preserving the childhood
I want for my kids."
--Mom.me
"Written for anyone who cares about preschool education
in this country... offers terrific insights into the world of
children."
--BookPage "Superbly written . . . [Christakis] takes us inside the
culture of current U.S. preschools and eloquently exposes parental
fears that without 'strategies' and 'toolkits, ' their little
Einsteins might fall woefully behind."
--Science Magazine "Honestly addressing every aspect of a child's
education, the author's intent here is not to show how to fix
things but to start an exchange that encourages us to think
differently about education in the early years."
--Library Journal (Starred review) "Sophisticated...Christakis's
rich experience and attentiveness to the details of child behavior
and psychology give her approach the power of practical real-world
experience."--Publishers Weekly "Fresh advice... A deep,
provocative analysis of the current modes of teaching preschoolers
and what should be changed to create a more effective learning
environment for everyone."--Kirkus Reviews "[Christakis's] insights
into raising little ones are eye-opening even for the most involved
mamas. Actually, especially for them." -Motherly "If
only adults observed little children with half the energetic
curiosity that little children bring to their scrutiny of adults!
That, Erika Christakis argues in her wonderful book, is the key to
making preschools the exciting and interesting places kids really
need. For a guide to keen-eyed appreciation of preschoolers'
amazing powers, you can't find a better one than Christakis. Read
The Importance of Being Little and you won't look at kids, or
classrooms, the same way again."
--Ann Hulbert, author of Raising America: Experts, Parents,
and a Century of Advice About Children "Drawing on a wealth of
research and clinical experience, Christakis deftly diagnoses one
of the most urgent problems of our times and offers concrete
recommendations for dealing with it, at the heart of which is the
startlingly humane recognition that children are usually far more
intelligent and perceptive than we assume, and possess hidden
powers of imagination, sociability, and self-discovery. Learned,
balanced, and hopeful, this compellingly argued and engagingly
written work will not only take its place as a standard reference
on early childhood education but, because 'we are all someone's
child, ' will be of great interest to everyone concerned with the
future of our nation and democratic culture."
--Orlando Patterson, John Cowles Professor of Sociology,
Harvard, and author of Slavery and Social Death "A brilliant,
altogether original, impeccably researched but also deeply
heartfelt call to action. Just as our environment is in grave
danger, so is what Christakis calls 'the habitat of childhood.' Her
advice--practical, authoritative, but offered with the loving,
personal concern of the mother and teacher that she is--soars
beyond sensible into the realm of wise, disruptive, and
irresistible. A tour de force."
--Edward Hallowell, M.D., author of The Childhood Roots of
Adult Happiness and Driven to Distraction "Teach your
children well. It's easier to sing than to do. Erika Christakis
wants to foment a revolution in early childhood education, and with
this deeply insightful, scientifically grounded, and utterly
original book, she just may get her way."
--Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness "As
the experts have bombarded parents with contradictory and ever more
demanding advice, childrearing has become more confusing than ever,
and the children themselves seem to have been left out of the
picture. Parents, caregivers, teachers, and policy makers could
have no surer guide through this morass than Erika Christakis. With
scientific acumen, irreverent good sense, and a novelist's eye for
human detail, Christakis offers us a judicious view of the new and
old realities of bringing up children."
--Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard
University, and the author of The Language Instinct and
The Blank Slate "Remarkably well-researched, erudite and
concise, Erika Christakis offers parents and teachers alike a
developmentally informed perspective on how preschool children
learn best, along with a no-nonsense prescription for how to get
them there. . . . If only we adults with our love for top-down
instructional methods and endless proliferation of testing can
learn to activate our kids' innate curiosity, support their natural
scientific and philosophical wonder, and simply get out of their
way."
--Jess P. Shatkin, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Child &
Adolescent Psychiatry and Pediatrics, New York University School of
Medicine "One of the most intelligent, compelling, and funniest
books I've read about children in a long time. Her prose sparkles.
. . . Her critique of America's early childhood programs is sharp,
but humane. . . . There's no underestimating children here: this
woman is on their side. . . . Her faith in "these strong, small
characters" infuses the book with moral authority, which she wears
lightly, revealing her foibles as a professional and parent, and
dispensing folksy wisdom from her own vividly evoked childish
escapades. . . . [W]e abandon [Christakis's argument] at our
peril."
--ECE PolicyMatters "Christakis, offering both research and
anecdotal history, covers all the bases: the need for quality
teacher training, the dearth of male representation, the effect of
low salaries, top-down imposition of 'nitpicky, decontextualized
standards, ' technology and screen-time, social-emotional learning,
parent/teacher relationships, and more. Although the author thinks
it will take years to turn early childhood education around, she
never doubts the innate capability of young children to flourish,
at home and in school, when they are given the right support and
enough time to do so. Perhaps the most important takeaway from this
thought-provoking, timely discussion is that children and adults
need to be allowed the opportunity to develop meaningful
relationships and to get to know and trust one another, because, as
Christakis concludes, 'the most essential engine of child
development is not gadgetry or testing, but deep human connection.'
It's an observation well worth considering."
--School Library Journal "Sometimes a book's message strikes me as
perfect for its time. Such was my reaction to the Importance of
Being Little....Christakis makes a powerful, research-based case
for why the way we have been educating our young children is not
working...I very much hope parents will read her book to better
understand what constitutes an authentic and meaningful early
childhood education. And Christakis's message will almost certainly
resonate with teachers, administrators, and educational policy
makers, as well."
--Alternet "Weaving together recent research with real-life
anecdotes and analogies, Christakis honors the complexity of young
children and helps readers better appreciate children's
vulnerabilities and strengths. . . . Her writing is both accessible
and creative."
--The Christian Century
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