The first selection for fall 2020 is The Gardener and the Carpenter by Alison Gopnik. Books will be available for check-out from the ECFE Parent Resource library if you choose not to bring a personal copy. Future titles will be determined by participant feedback. The Gardener and the Carpenter draws on the study of human evolution and her own cutting-edge scientific research into how children learn. She shows 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 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. "Parenting" won't make children learn - but caring parents let children learn by creating secure, loving environments.
