Endangered Minds: Why Children Dont Think And What We Can Do About It [Paperback]

 

 

Create your own review

What is amazing about this book (and I am referring to the first edition) is that it describes Generation-X. This book was originally published in 1991, which means that it dealt with children who lived in the eighties. In fact when you read what the children were like in those times (I was one of them...in fact I graduated from High School the year the book was published)and then you relate it to what is written about Gen-X you find an incredible parallel. Has indeed the dominance of television in the first MTV culture (Gen-X) created a generation of people who are not able to truly utilize higher-level thinking abilities? When you compare Healy's work with what we see today it seems that Healy was indeed onto something when she originally wrote the book.
But the book continues to be timely in that television, and "busy" parents, have not disappeared. The influence of both continues to occur, but what do you expect from Gen-X parents who grew up with this?
As one who not only ministers to youth, but has also taught in elementary education and has friends who are teachers, I can tell you that this book is still on target. The scary thing to me is that I think the "restless" nature of kids today is much worse than the past. I believe that ADD and ADHD are "problems" that have developed primarily out of a "television" culture and a culture of "hurried" parents. And until parents start to limit their children's television viewing and spending more time interacting with them, playing with them, and allowing them to be children, the problems will not disappear! I am a parent so I know the challenge!
This is a great book! Every educator and parent should read this!

I would highly recommend this book to both parents and teacher alike. Healy maintains an interesting writing style throughout the text, and actively engages her audience. While I do feel the text is rather long, it doesn't dissolve into random banter. The book stays focused until the end, providing many provoking lines of thought. For instance: Since the introduction of standardized schooling over a hundred years ago, the rate of literacy has radically declined. How did we go from a nation of unschooled but highly literate people, to a nation of overschooled and illiterate people? Such illuminations, beg discussion.

The difficulty I had with this book is the impression I got that the author did research on a variety of areas relating to brain development and then loosely connected these areas in broader sections. I got lost in some of the data and conclusions, and would sometimes forget what the point of a given section was. She seemed to take too many different directions to prove her point, as opposed to having information that built upon itself.

Having said that, I did find many of Healy's conclusions important, e.g., what is taught in school today is not what is important, but what is easy to measure. She also educated me on the importance of "Whole-language" learning for children, which I don't necessarily agree with and is controversial in my state, Massachusetts. Concerning television, she devotes a whole chapter to condemning Sesame Street. I agree with this assessment, but thought the subject was better exposed in Marie Winn's "The Plug-In Drug" mainly because the latter described the marketing techniques employed by the program.

My favorite chapter was the last, where she explores the future of human brains. Some provocative food for thought is mentioned like: "now, with a flood of data available, the educated mind is not the one that can master facts, but the one able to ask the winnowing question."

The detriment of television on developing children is difficult to prove, I'm learning from reading this book and other similar material. The lack of research on the effects of television is alarming to the author and to me. She has convinced me that television does affect brain development and needs to be better understood. But even the steps to proceed to more understanding are not being taken, which is suspicious.

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 9 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

 

2.0 out of 5 stars Unsubstantiated and belabored.
Despite the claim of the subtitle, the author can never really tell us why children don't think and what we can do about it. Read more

Published on Jun 21 2004 by Daniel Harper

5.0 out of 5 stars If you let your kids watch "good TV", don't read this book
If you are an advocate of letting your children watch "good TV", like PBS, this book will be a hard pill to swallow. I read it years ago, and loved it. Read more

Published on May 27 2002 by Sandi Jones

4.0 out of 5 stars Endangered Minds
Healy raises alot of issues that I would never have thought about. i.e. How brain wave monitors were hooked up to kids watching tv and what happens. Read more

Published on April 1 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars Giving Kids a Great Start
I read this book over 8 years ago. It really opened my mind to how I wanted to raise my children with respect to television, family time, over commitments, and developmental... Read more

Published on Nov 28 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful,insightful and thought provoking book
As a physician I urge every parent to read this book.Turn off the TV!! Spend time with your children. MAKE THEM READ, FOR HOURS AT A TIME! Read more

Published on Sep 24 1999

1.0 out of 5 stars Pure bunk. Infectious nonsense. Hooey posing as science.
As if U.S. schools were not saturated with enough child-damaging fads (whole language, constructivism, discovery learning, developmentally appropriate practices), Healy comes... Read more

Published on April 22 1999

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 9 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Search Listmania!