How Other Children Learn
“What five traditional societies tell us about parenting and children’s learning”
By Cornelius N. Grove
Published by Rowman & Littlefield, 2006
How Other Children Learn, A deep, thoughtful and provocative book that shows in detail how five traditional societies not affected by modern values and ways of life raise their children and oversee their learning. How Other Children Learn is not a book for everyone, but certainly a book to make parents think, especially in view of outrages across the country in so many boards of education today.
The five cultures are the AKA, hunter-gatherers of Africa; the Highland Peru Quechua, the Navajos, the Village Arabs of the Levant and the Hindu Villagers of India.
After depicting the impacts and the differences among the five societies, including the Navajo from the Southwest and the Cuechua from Peru, How Other Children Learn also cites anthropologists’ finds and why children in these societies willingly carry out family responsibilities.
The author concludes with several books he suggests for further reading, as well as a five page bibliography. But more importantly, How Other Children Learn ends it with the provocative question: “Can we take a step or two back, thereby releasing opportunities for our children to explore and learn on their own?
The author’s question follows his belief and documentation that today’s children have few opportunities for self-guided expression and observation…the tools each of these societies used in educating their children. He points out that even in today’s parenting, parents can and should make individual differences. His conclusion is that traditional parents parent as little as possible; modern parents parent as much as possible.
Grove concedes we do, and should shield our children from stress, danger and iniquity. But he also wonders whether we should evaluate our standards, step back and look how societies have handled that. We try to shelter our children from frustration, anger or jealousy by providing each with a trophy, regardless of whether it is earned. Is that right, he questions?
He points out areas where we believe childhood should be a time of fun, fantasy, playfulness and innocent of any cares, rather than preparing them for an adult life full of problems and situations they must face and know how to conquer. Other societies include their children in their activities, not actually involving them so much as surrounding them with adult activities, thereby enabling children to learn from observation.
Societies where the family farmed, or foraged had to include their children; today’s work opportunities prevent that. Ancient society families had foundations of many in the family and extended family; today’s parents can limit the number of children, can live far from other family members, can put their children in care centers and day cares.
Traditional societies believe in obedience, respect, fulfillment of obligations, keeping the family’s needs and desires far ahead of the individual child’s. Many families today hasten through dinner, grab something off the counter or in the car to ensure their child gets to soccer practice or dance school.
Children learn through their parents, as well as from others. They learn culture, they are not born with it.
Values are preferences so therefore are a part of culture. What a parent teaches his child about values is how he established the child’s culture. And that influences his behavior both as a child and later in life as an adult making his own cultural decisions based on his values.
How Other Children Learn is filled with information, citations, other references, great stories about five different societies, and much to think about. How Other Children Learn isn’t a book you take to peruse on the beach. But it is a fact-filled education in parenting, children’s learning, and the future as we teach our children.
Certainly worth far more than the price of the paperback version. I recommend it.
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