Customer Reviews

Superparenting: Child Rearing for the New Millennium

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Freud was right: the primary sources of human anguish are attitudes, beliefs and unresolved angers from the earliest days of life. The emerging universal human culture must begin the educating of future parents from the prenatal period. We can break the vicious cycle of incompetent parenting by using ancient wisdom, modern science, and the in-born, natural inclination of every child to improve upon his/her parents' child rearing practices. Montessori showed that children's purity of heart helps them to choose a path superior to that of their parents in virtually every domain, from which toy to play with, to which food to eat, to which teaching style to use in which circumstance -- when the choices are available at the appropriate "sensitive moment." Thus the parenting role is much more subtle than previously suspected.

The book begins with six general principles that are universal; continues with mate selection ideas -- be careful --; advises that we make sure that the mother's body is prepared for the arduous task of child-bearing; educates the father that his protective role is an essential and sacred one, etc.

This book, when fully understood, will help revolutionize child rearing. It is a book for the new millennium.

There may not be another book on the market that offers such timeless insight and invaluable wisdom to those who are engaged in the most important occupation on the planet: parenting. What is there that is more important? We are required to take classes to read and write, to drive a car, to install new plumbing, or to perform an operation, but what requirements are there to have a baby and raise it effectively and successfully? None, except perhaps a fertile, ample body. The accidental human being, a dangerous experiment, has proven to be a costly, tragic endeavor, whereas the designer human being -- going beyond mere material concerns for eye color and body type -- is not only possible but inevitable with books like SuperParenting at hand.

Now, at last, here is a book for parents and prospective parents that goes beyond the obvious instructions of diapering, bathing and feeding. Finally, more subtle needs are addressed as well. The authors have considered every aspect of the precious opportunity that exists when having a child, elevating the experience of parenting to one of the highest services one may render... from the importance of the psychospiritual and emotional climate of the mother and father during the prenatal period to the carefully constructed wholistic environment needed during and after birth, from infancy to adolescence.

Imagine the implications of life in just one generation with a beginning that is as well-planned and thoughtfully prepared as this book suggests. Not only is this book invaluable for those who are in the process of pregnancy, it is also an important book to give to people who are in a pre-parental stage in life. I would hope that a curriculum for high school and college students would include this book. Then I can rest assured that the children of the future will be in good hands, and we will indeed progress as an "ever-advancing civilization".

"When "Law and order" are enthroned in the child's mind, that mind will have stability. When love is enthroned in the child's heart, there will be strength. Great souls have both." -- Professor William Maxwell

Mary E Maxwell, William Maxwell, Jim Pearce, Ruth Leilani Smith. "SuperParenting: Child Rearing for the New Millennium"
The problem presented in the book "SuperParenting" is that today's society is not fully educated on the proper way to raise a child. The Authors speak that not everyone is educated on how to properly take care of a child and because of that it causes are children to be less intelligent and not allowing them to fully contribute to the betterment of society and its entire people. The Authors address how even the children being born in regions without the vast metropolis, such as in the Ibo tribe of southeastern Nigeria, can be more intelligent, physically and spiritually healthier then other children born in the states because the tribe know how to take care of the children versus the states and how most parents are uneducated on child rearing because of multiple different reasons mainly because their parents didn't teach them right and it becomes a endless cycle. The book strives to brake the habits and myths of taking care of a child and instill the correct way to rear a child to further benefit not only the children of the future but the future itself by helping create a better child.
Professor William Maxwell, Ed.D., has many qualifying attributes to writing about the worlds techniques of child rearing and how affective they are. William Maxwell has traveled the world with his wife for many years living, experiencing, and studying multiple different cultures and how they partake in their everyday life and how they go about educating their young. Professor William Maxwell has significant achievements in his life one being he is the founder of the International Conference on Thinking, while at the University of the South Pacific, which was the world's first academic conference focused on teaching the thinking process (Maxwell p.170).
Mary Elizabeth Maxwell, the late wife of Professor William Maxwell was trained by multiple different Universities as well as experiencing and helping multiple different cultures as she accompanied Professor William Maxwell on his journey through life. She studied public health nursing which allowed her to analyze the different cultures that she experienced along with her husband. She worked in America on helping the immigrants of different locations, with their health care problems, quarantines, and newborns. Her assortment of knowledge of health care and child rearing makes her more then qualified to write about how to further better your child by taking certain steps and precautions to making them a healthier and more competent child (Maxwell p.170).
Ruth Leilani Smith earned her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature at Illinois Wesleyan University, and a Master of Arts in Tourism and Special Event Management from Canterbury University, United Kingdom. Ruth is a Teacher of adults with disabilities makes her a qualified individual to report on child rearing because she studies the psychological problems that are present in early child hood that leads to further disabilities later in life (Maxwell p.171).
Jim Pearce, born in the Republic of South Africa moved to the United States in 1984. He received a Master's Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy in 1991 from Abilene Christian University. Having the educational background to provide facts, data, and theories about the family and how certain situation can help and hurt the family member provides a lot to this book and further proves that this book is a viable tool for any parent (Maxwell p.171).
The book is about how to properly take care and nurture a child to make them the best they can be. The book provides education to the reader on the does and don'ts of child rearing. "SuperParenting" provides the reader with not just a guide to how parents should raise their children but to help they understand the reasons for it and also letting they know that without helping and making their child the best they can be society can't evolve and will only hurt from children that are poorly raised. The Authors do a wonderful job at showing how other cultures use different methods to help their children and how they work and why parents all across the world should use the methods they use. The book is not afraid to take on controversial topics such as chastity before marriage, a exert from the book provides how important sex is but with today's society and media sex is wrongly portrayed to teenagers and thus the teens have the wrong idea of sex, "Sex is like electricity. Uninsulated, it wreaks havoc. Insulated and switched on at the right time, sex can "light up" every cell of the body, including the creative cells of the brain" (Maxwell p.47). Another controversial topic that the book talks about is the Importance of praying for the embryo. Telling parents to pray for their children seems like it would be a taboo since not all people pray and may find it offensive but the thing "SuperParenting" does best is give vivid detail for everything they present to the reader by giving them facts and good reason for their ways. "But the greatest evidence for the power of prayer lies in macro history: no society has achieved long-term stability and a high level of culture without a powerful and nearly universal habit of regular prayer" (Maxwell p.72).
The book is intended for all parents and future parents. The book educates the parents on how to make sure they help their children to be the best they can be and how to assure that. The book and its authors truly want to better the world by bettering the one true thing that will help the world and that is its children. The book stacks up to other child rearing books by being one of the most insightful and while constructed books made by people that truly know what they are talking about from there many years of experience and education. The book having a foreword by one of the greatest thinkers of our time Edward De Bono is truly something to look to, not to mention that the book is on Harvard's must read.
I truly enjoyed reading this novel because of the fact that the authors truly want to help better the world and also better the children of the world. I love reading something that tells me about all different cultures and how they use different techniques to properly take care of their children and the world. The book was a wonderful read and lucky for me I have the opportunity to meet and have a class by one of the authors Professor William Maxwell, whom is a wonderful and knowledgeable man who truly wants the world to be a better place for all mankind; a value I share. Reading the book was a really positive experience that I suggest that all teenagers read because it will, or at least should, give them a better outlook on life and show them how what we do during every step of our life will affect are children from the minute they are conceived until they die. The author was able to hold my attention the whole time by presenting factual and well educational information to me in a manner that felt personal enough to make me truly care. I learned a great deal from reading this book it even educated me on things I thought differently about such as breast feeding, most of that was me being naive and not educated on the subject, but now thanks to this great piece of work I am now more educated. I highly recommend this book to everyone even if they don't want kids because they will want to help others when they read the things in this book. I highly suggest continuing making your student Professor Maxwell read this as their first book because it truly sheds a new light on things from a lot of different angles, I would even suggest that high school freshmen read this book for freshmen summer reading. My personal favorite line from this book is a quote that I feel hold true to every standard of living "When "Law and order" are enthroned in the child's mind, that mind will have stability. When love is enthroned in the child's heart, there will be strength. Great souls have both."(Maxwell p.29)




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This is a book worthy of your time if you are a parent, grandparent, future parent or as a gift to someone who will become a parent. His long and sensitive experience as an educator and psychologist come out on every page.

It makes interesting and thought provoking reading for almost everyone.

Personally, I strongly recommend this book not only for your own library but as a gift to your friends.

I just had the pleasure of reading SuperParenting, and I don't think I can adequately describe how much I enjoyed this remarkable book. The authors utilize a very effective technique of presenting many many short chapters, which makes it easy to read and follow. Each chapter is full of useful information but none is so long as to overwhelm you as a reader. I also loved the way Dr. Maxwell and the other authors used examples from other cultures to explain and support their ideas--I fully believe that we have a lot to learn from other people throughout the world on parenting as well as other topics. I found the information in the book to be very thought-provoking as well as filled with a great deal of common sense. As an example, the suggestion that babies be born in rooms with dim light is a very good one, and the explanation makes complete sense. This is a great book for people who would like to become parents, expectant parents, and parents of all ages. I think it would also be very useful for grandparents as well. I look forward to the next book by this team of authors.

This book is very enjoyable and provides a great deal of useful information. A must read for all parents!

About twenty-five years ago I attended a parenting session in Michigan with Professor William Maxwell where he emphasized many "old-fashioned" customs in child-rearing, such as re-instituting the family bed on the grounds that humans are the only primates who isolate their babies, the value of breast-feeding, and the like. More importantly, he reminded his audience that when we're single and looking for a mate, we should look for one who shares our goal of raising healthy, creative children whose successes will comfort us in our older years. After my wife and I married and began our family, we revisited his book SuperParenting and decided to follow the more than 50 practical suggestions contained within it. The results may be surprising by current standards, but not by those of us who have read his book. Our two daughters have never rebelled against authority; never engaged in any serious sibling rivalry issues, never experimented with drugs, alcohol or promiscuity, and both are straight "A" students in two first-class universities; both are intent upon helping improve mankind by becoming medical doctors and working together, somewhat on the beautiful model established by the Mayo Brothers. Books such as SuperParenting and courses on such books should be an integral part of every high school curriculum in the world. We highly encourage everyone to read the book where you're certain to find many practical suggestions to help you be successful in the most important endeavor you'll ever undertake in your lifetime - the raising of your children.

This illuminating book is full of wise and valuable advice that are derived from Professor William Maxwell's and his wife Mary Maxwell's life-long research into child rearing, multiple intelligence development and education. It also illuminates the collective wisdom of the world's most successful cultures and modern child-development research studies. This book introduces the unique characteristics of families that produce the world's most successful men and women. Most instructive and interesting to me is the Chapter:PARENTS TO AVOID BEHAVIOUR THAT PRODUCES THE AUTOCRATIC PERSONALITY. Erikson found that Adolph Hitler and Mahatma Gadhi were almost mirror images of each other in a scientific sense. To avoid producing a child like Hitler, and to raise a child like Gandhi, Prof. Maxwell proposes a four-step Interpersonal Skills Training Strategy as the chid grows from 0 to 11-year old.