The Bookshelf: Sept. 3, 2015

Trib+Edu is joining with respected books authority Kirkus Reviews to bring you select reviews of books of note in the field of education. For more book reviews and recommendations, visit Kirkus.com.

THE GIFT OF FAILURE: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed

by Jessica Lahey

A teacher and writer on education and parenting ... Lahey provides an overview of parenting values through the decades in order to ensure that we don’t return to outdated values, as well as to examine the weaknesses of the current approach. This would, in theory, provide useful information toward a new paradigm, rather than simply lurching back toward the end of the spectrum that involves such actions as smacking students’ hands with rulers when they are disrespectful. While certainly not advocating that approach, Lahey is also unwilling to turn a blind eye to the problems inherent in modern parenting, which she characterizes as essentially overridden by parents’ concerns about securing the best possible everything for their children ... The result, she argues, is hobbling children, leaving them unable to develop actual self-understanding and competency in how to integrate the idea of failure into their lives. 

For the full review, visit kirkus.com.