Tuesday, May 8, 2007

David Elkind retires

David Elkin became a household name in 1981 when he wrote the ground-breaking book, "The Hurried Child, Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon." Elkind was the first to identify the so-called "forced blooming" of a generation of children who were being pressured to achieve more, sooner, faster. Unfortunately, the trend continues.

Elkind's newest book, published earlier this year, "The Power of Play, How Sponatenous, Imaginative Activities Lead to Happier, Healthier Children," is a return to that earlier theme. He argues that the pressure to achieve is now robbing our children of the best teacher of all, free play.

Elkind is officially retiring today from Tufts University, where he has served on the faculty of the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development since 1979. In the years for which his books stand as bookends (he wrote many others inbetween), parenting has become a huge consumer industry. Elkind didn't just getting on the bandwagon; he created it. He enabled us to look at childhood through a new lens and with new insight. Parents today who are wise enough to worry about the stress children are under and who work hard to keep the "hood" in childhood may not realize it, but they have Elkind to thank.

There's a celebration in his honor at Tufts today with educational researcher Sharon Lynn Kagan giving the keynote. The title of her talk says it all: "David Elkind: Right Then, Right Now, Right Always"

Posted by Barbara Meltz at 03:06 PM

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