Alison Gopnik - Perspectives on Parenting

Author and psychologist Alison Gopnik challenges our perceptions of parenting in this talk at our International Speaker Series. In the past 30 years, the concept of parenting and the multibillion-dollar industry surrounding it have transformed child care into obsessive, controlling, and goal-oriented labour intended to create a particular kind of child and therefore a particular kind of adult. Drawing on the study of human evolution and her own scientific research, Prof. Gopnik argues that although caring for children is profoundly important, it is not a matter of shaping them to turn out a particular way. Children are designed to be messy and unpredictable, playful and imaginative, and to be very different both from their parents and from each other. The variability and flexibility of childhood lets them innovate, create, and survive in an unpredictable world. An Empathy Enterprise TM Initiative © Roots of Empathy TM