美国国家公共电台 NPR To Raise Confident, Independent Kids, Some Parents Are Trying To 'Let Grow'

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

There was an age growing up when my mom let me go anywhere on the block by myself so long as I did not cross the street. A bit later, I could ride my bike about as far as I could go. Surely, many kids still grow up that way, but we have entered an era of hyper-attentive parenting when adults tend to hover¹. Deena Prichep reports on an organization that sees value in a looser parenting style.

DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE²: Seven-year-old Matthew is in the woods behind his Portland condo. It's kind of a classic childhood scene. He lounges on a tire swing, tromps over to his friend's house across the ravine.

MATTHEW RANDALL: Well, we made this path from here all the way down to there.

PRICHEP: He made the path himself, with the help of a friend, using garden shears³, and they did it without any adult supervision⁴. Matthew's mom, Laura Randall, wants her son to gain the sort of skills and confidence that only come with doing things yourself, but she didn't just toss her 7-year-old out the door with some hiking boots and garden shears one day. They worked up to it gradually with what Randall calls...

LAURA RANDALL: Experiments in independence - just those moments, you know, incrementally⁵ bigger moments, where he can choose to be on his own.

PRICHEP: Randall knows this isn't the norm in today's parenting, where kids are shuttled from one supervised, structured activity to another. Gone are the days when kids ride their bikes alone until the streetlights come on.

And Randall has encountered people who think she's a bad parent - like the man who started yelling at her when she left Matthew alone in the car for a few minutes while she ran into the pharmacy⁶ to pick up a prescription⁷.

RANDALL: It was mortifying⁸ and frightening, and he identifies himself as a police officer. And I think oh, my gosh.

PRICHEP: Randall knows that parents in several states have been arrested for leaving kids unattended, for letting them walk to the park on their own or even walk to school. And so she was worried about what this man might do.

RANDALL: Then he immediately said something about how - do you know how many kids go missing a year? And I was like, by coincidence, I think I do know, and it's very small.

PRICHEP: They talked it out, and the man eventually threw up his hands and walked away. Randall's heart was pounding, but she felt confident defending her parenting, partly because she had connected with a group called Free Range Kids, which promotes childhood independence and gives families the information they need to push back against a culture of overprotection. Its founder⁹ is Lenore Skenazy.

LENORE SKENAZY: This very pessimistic, fearful way of looking at childhood isn't based in reality. It is something that we have been taught.

PRICHEP: Skenazy now has a new project called Let Grow, which aims to create communities where childhood independence is the norm.

SKENAZY: We have two projects that are really simple, like, almost laughably simple, but I think they're working.

PRICHEP: Let Grow is reaching out to elementary schools across the country to assign kids independence homework. Every week, the kids decide to do something on their own that they haven't done before, whether it's walking the dog around the block or making dinner or walking a few aisles¹⁰ over in the supermarket to get some eggs. The schools also set up Let Grow play clubs - mixed ages, no structure and no adult direction, just free, child-led play. Lori Koerner is principal at Tremont Elementary in Long Island, one of a dozen New York schools piloting the project.

LORI KOERNER: We saw a direct effect in the classroom. The children were just more self-assured and confident.

PRICHEP: Koerner says with Let Grow, kids discover skills and abilities they didn't know they had, and they also discover what it's like to fail.

KOERNER: If we don't offer them these opportunities to communicate, to collaborate¹¹, to problem-solve, then how can they be successful in a global society?

PRICHEP: And that success, ultimately, is what parents want for their kids - parents like Laura Randall.

RANDALL: There's the short game where you're sort of doing the best you can in the moment, but there's the long game. And there's paying attention to allowing a little risk because it will pay off in the long run.

PRICHEP: Randall understands that life has real risks but so does getting in a car, and most of us still do it every day because that's how we get where we want to go. For Matthew to become a confident, competent adult, Randall wants him to go outside, make his own mistakes and figure things out. And she hopes he won't be the only kid out there doing it. For NPR News, I'm Deena Prichep in Portland, Ore.

1 hover   

vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫

参考例句：

• You don't hover round the table.你不要围着桌子走来走去。
• A plane is hover on our house.有一架飞机在我们的房子上盘旋。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 shears   

n.大剪刀

参考例句：

• These garden shears are lightweight and easy to use.这些园丁剪刀又轻又好用。
• With a few quick snips of the shears he pruned the bush.他用大剪刀几下子就把灌木给修剪好了。

4 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

5 incrementally   

adv.逐渐地

参考例句：

• Incrementally update the shared dimensions used in this cube. 增量更新此多维数据集中使用的共享维度。 来自互联网
• Grand goals are inspiring, but be sure to approach them incrementally. 辉煌的目标令人鼓舞，但一定要逐步实现。 来自互联网

6 pharmacy   

n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品

参考例句：

• She works at the pharmacy.她在药房工作。
• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness.现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。

7 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

8 mortifying   

adj.抑制的，苦修的v.使受辱( mortify的现在分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等）

参考例句：

• I've said I did not love her, and rather relished mortifying her vanity now and then. 我已经说过我不爱她，而且时时以伤害她的虚荣心为乐。 来自辞典例句
• It was mortifying to know he had heard every word. 知道他听到了每一句话后真是尴尬。 来自互联网

9 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

10 aisles   

n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊

参考例句：

• Aisles were added to the original Saxon building in the Norman period. 在诺曼时期，原来的萨克森风格的建筑物都增添了走廊。
• They walked about the Abbey aisles, and presently sat down. 他们走到大教堂的走廊附近，并且很快就坐了下来。

11 collaborate   

vi.协作，合作；协调

参考例句：

• The work gets done more quickly when we collaborate.我们一旦合作，工作做起来就更快了。
• I would ask you to collaborate with us in this work.我们愿意请你们在这项工作中和我们合作。