Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don't Think - Hardcover

The subtitle is the basic premise of this volume. According to the author, the present generation is not receiving the educational foundation needed to foster analytical thought processes. The current trend toward preschool preparedness and the use of such programs as Sesame Street to enhance the child's learning may teach the child to read but fails to develop critical reasoning processes. Today's students have no ability in language-related learning, are inattentive, and are not successful problem solvers. Healy relies on current research findings to support the theory of "plasticity of the brain"--the changeability of the brain in both function and physical size in direct response to environmental and experiential stimuli. The final chapters, offering advice to parents on helping the child to become a critical thinker both at home and in school, make this valuable for public libraries; the excellent bibliography makes this a worthwhile selection for readers knowledgeable in neuropsychology as it pertains to the field of education.
- A.R. Huggins, Memphis State Univ.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The incidence of illiteracy in the United States is even more alarming when seen to include the decline in skill and interest in reading among the functionally literate. Searching for the cause and ruling out decline in intelligence, educator Healy ( Your Child's Growing Brain ) draws on recent research in neuropsychology for her model of how children learn. Observing and analyzing educational practices and examining the constraints imposed by mandatory competency testing, Healy concludes that current pedagogical techniques should be changed. Even acclaimed electronic teaching programs such as Sesame Street and The Electronic Circus in her view, reach only a limited aspect of a young child's learning apparatus. Thoughtful and provocative, this advisory offers much to parents regarding the development of their children's reading and critical thinking abilities.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.