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2 obres 46 Membres 2 Ressenyes

Obres de Victor Goertzel

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male

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Ressenyes

My first impression reading this book was that it is very discouraging. It was a continual stream of childhood family and societal woes followed by maladjustment in adulthood.

However, the last few chapters felt more hopeful. Still, adversity brings out the best in those who have the inner strength to overcome. Towards the end it gets into what we can do as a society to enable talented children to become eminent.

I would have liked it if there were clear demarcations between talking about one person and the next. Something as simple as a little white space would work quite nicely.

The endnotes and appendices provide ample opportunity for those interested in further study. Endnotes, appendices, and index run to over 100 pages.

My favorite chapter was Chapter 10 “Dislike of School and Schoolteachers.” Even those schools that have programs, which supposedly cater to gifted children, work best for compliant children. For children who are creative, gifted programs don’t seem to help.

“In almost every home where there is a sickly child, there is an overconcerned or driving parent, or parental antagonisms. … The child’s illness often seems to fill some kind of a need in the child or the parent or both.” (Page 202)

“If she has a husband who is failure-prone, as 90 percent of the dominating mothers do, the child often resolves to make her so proud of him or her that she will forget her disappointment in her husband.” (Page 82)

“The dominating father, despite the place given to him in the novels of the Victorian days, is comparatively rare. (Page 83) But the book did mention lots of cases where the father was abusive, absent, etc.

“… who delighted a generation of theatergoers with Peter Pan, a play about the little boy who never grew up. Neither did the author or the star.” (Page 96)

Having trouble in adult relationships was a common theme. Boys who were strongly attached to their mothers often had troubled relationships with women their age as adults. “If she overplays her role, the child is not the less creative but may have serious problems in his interpersonal relationships, especially in courtship and marriage.” (Page 103)

“Rejection or dislike of the classroom is an international phenomenon and has little to do with whether the schools are public or private, secular or clerical, or with the philosophy of teaching employed in the various schools.” (Page 250)

Chapter List
1 Homes that respect learning & achievement
2 Opinionated parents
3 Failure-prone fathers
4 Dominating mothers, but few dominating fathers
5 “Smothering” Mothers
6 Troubled homes
7 Not-so-troubled homes
8 Children with handicaps
9 Early agonies
10 Dislike of school and schoolteachers
11 “Out of the cradle endlessly rocking”
12 Cradles of eminence today
End Notes
Biographical notes
… 300 Eminent Personalities
… Turncoast and True Believers
Biographical Sources
Index

… (més)
 
Marcat
bread2u | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Jul 1, 2020 |
This book was interesting, but I guess I just expected a little more from it. It describes some of the similarities that many eminent persons had in their childhood. However, it seems that no one factor creates eminent people, and some factors yield different results in different people. Some of the factors that the authors seem to feel influence eminence are: families in which learning is important; families which have opinionated parents often times with a dominating mother and a failure prone father; and children who often disliked school or school teachers. Many of these children came from troubled homes, and/or suffered from handicaps or trauma as children.

I was somewhat disappointed that most of the biographies of these eminent people were so short, and there were no historical figures from early American history because the authors decided to only include people from the twentieth century. For example, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Madison, and Monroe are never mentioned. It also seemed a little misleading when it says 'childhoods of more than 700 famous men and women' when many of them are nothing more than a name in a list. For instance, John Wayne, whose photo is clearly shown on the front cover, has nothing written about him, but is just a name in a list. That just seems odd to me.
… (més)
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1 vota
Marcat
gcamp | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Sep 2, 2011 |

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Estadístiques

Obres
2
Membres
46
Popularitat
#335,831
Valoració
3.8
Ressenyes
2
ISBN
4