The Parent as Gardener

Caring deeply about our children is part of what makes us human. Yet the thing we call “parenting” is a surprisingly new invention. In the past thirty years, “parenting” has transformed child care into an obsessive, controlling, and goal-oriented effort to create a particular kind of child. Drawing on the study of human evolution and her own cutting-edge research, developmental psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik shatters key myths of “good parenting.” Interviewing Dr. Gopnik will be Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of How to Raise an Adult.

Alison Gopnik is Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. She is an internationally recognized leader in the study of children’s learning and development and was the first to argue that children’s minds could help us understand deep philosophical questions.