Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think And What We Can Do About It

Rating:
Summary: A Portrait of Gen-X
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!