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38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What is to be a child?, November 6, 1997
By A Customer
This review is from: Magical Child (Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)
A very important book, especially for those with children or expecting them. In a very reasoned manner reflecting a great deal of knowledge and research, Pearce discusses the phases every child goes through as it matures. He describes it as a succession of matrices, beginning with the womb-matrix, then the mother-matrix, the earth-matrix and so on. What it boils down to is the there is a time for everything, and we need to support the child's natural unfolding as much as we can. This means not 'abandoning' the infant in the crib, not pushing the pre-schooler too learn to read (ultimately a harmful thing), limiting television viewing and encouraging fantasy and play. There seems to be so much misunderstanding and ignorance with regard to children these days, from tv overload to little league pressure to accelerated academic preparation--all harmful activities because they block a child's healthy development. Wake up everybody! In the final chapters, Pearce goes beyond childhood to explore the possibilities of the human mind per se and give us a glimpse of what lies beyond the self-imposed limits of our reality. A deeply significant work. I also recommend Betty Staley's Between Form and Freedom for a look at what awaits in the adolescent years.
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54 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The education for a new and gently brilliant world, December 31, 1998
This review is from: Magical Child (Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)
This is the best childhood education book I have ever read. Since first picking this book up in the late 70s, I've read it again and again and have probably given away 50 copies to new parents and to educators. If you want a plan to bring your children to golden wisdom, if you seek the roadmap to unfold the mind of genius which lives in your child and in the children around you, read this book. Then give it to your friends and relatives and the teachers at your schools. In this you will know that, like planting a tree, you've sent another messenger to that kind and better future we pray for in our hearts.
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73 of 85 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some readers will love this book, January 3, 2004
This review is from: Magical Child (Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)
The overall message of this book is important for parents and babies; we need to let babies and children grow and develop. We need to provide stimulation and new experiences. We need to keep the little ones close, provide them security and not force Western-style "independence" on them. This keeping close means a natural birth, breastfeeding, holding and talking to- not getting our children attached to things. I'm just not certain the author reached his conclusions in a way that I endorse since he says many things I absolutely disagree with. In the first chapter, he says about our brains and grey matter, "the amount we have is just what we need for certain goals nature has in mind, such as our dominion over the earth."! I really have a hard time believing that evolution is goal directed, and that humans should have "dominion" over the earth. We have no right to that, and we are destroying the earth as a result of trying to be in control of this planet. The chapter on "maintaining the matrix", or how to birth babies naturally, is taken right out of LeBoyer's work "Birth without Violence"- a fine book but not without it's flaws. This chapter also explores the development of the naturally birthed and nurtured infant, or at least the ones the author observed in Uganda. These babies are developmentally ahead of the medically birthed babies in Western society, so he says. They push up at birth, sit up at a couple months, run (not just walk!) at 7 months of age. Humph! Amazing babies, right? My baby born by c-section walked and talked much earlier than my naturally born-at-home babies. What happened?! I don't particularly like the language of this book, but it will work for a lot of people. Many of us in breastfeeding advocacy work learn that people don't always learn intellectually, but they do learn *emotionally*. If some mothers learn to nurture their babies in a hands-on way because of the emotional discussion in this book, more power to them. For those of us who learn differently, "So That's what they're For!" or "Attachment Parenting" might do the trick.
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