The first philosophy, which she calls “concerted cultivation,” was the dominant model used by families in the middle and upper class. It begins with the premise that children require an extraordinary degree of care and training by adults. Parents must buy Baby Einstein videos to raise their children’s IQs (even though researchers later showed such videos to be worthless36). Children’s calendars must be filled with activities that the parents believe are enriching, such as learning Mandarin, or extra math training, even when such activities reduce autonomy and leave less room for free play.
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