Hothousing
{{other uses|Hothouse (disambiguation)}}
Hothousing is a form of education for children, involving intense study of a topic in order to stimulate the child's mind. The goal is to take normal or bright children and boost them to a level of intellectual functioning above the norm.{{Cite book|title=Angles on Child Psychology|last1=Jarvis|first1=Matt|last2=Chandler|first2=Emma|date=2001|publisher=Nelson Thornes|isbn=0748759751|location=Cheltenham|pages=183}} Advocates of the practice claim that it is essential for the brightest to flourish intellectually, while critics claim that it does more harm than good and can lead a child to abandon the area studied under such a scheme later in life.
Development
It was Irving Sigel who first introduced the term "hothousing" {{dubious span|in 1987|date=April 2025|reason=First used in a symposium two years earlier, see next paragraph}} after the greenhouse farming method, defining it as "the process of inducing infants to acquire knowledge that is typically acquired at a later developmental level."{{cite journal |last1=Sigel |first1=Irving E. |title=Does hothousing rob children of their childhood? |journal=Early Childhood Research Quarterly |date=1987 |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=211–225 |doi=10.1016/0885-2006(87)90031-7 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0885200687900317 |issn=0885-2006|url-access=subscription }} It was an analogy with the way vegetables are forced to ripen in this condition. Sigel, who worked for the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, used it to refer to a child who is drilled in academic fields such as reading and math long before other children begin learning them in school.{{Cite book |last1=Diamond |first1=Marian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VT0NAkZWV2cC&q=Hothousing+education+sigel&pg=PT138 |title=Magic Trees of the Mind: How to Nurture your Child's Intelligence, Creativity, and Healthy Emotions from Birth Through Adolescence |last2=Hopson |first2=Janet |date=1999-01-01 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9781101127438 |language=en}} The child is likened to a "hurried student" induced to acquire knowledge with emphasis on how it fits into a broader scheme of knowledge instead of acquiring bits of information.{{Cite book|title=The New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning: A Project of the Music Educators National Conference|last1=Colwell|first1=Richard|last2=Richardson|first2=Carol|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|year=2002|isbn=9780195138849|location=New York|pages=211}}
In 1985, a symposium titled "The Hot Housing of Young Children; So Much, So Soon" was held in Philadelphia. Most presenters at the symposium were critical of hothousing, with one presenter, Brian Sutton-Smith, remarking "If you get hothoused, you end up being a rotten tomato—or at least a pallid tomato".{{Cite news |last=Collins |first=Glenn |date=November 4, 1985 |title=Children: Teaching Too Much, Too Soon? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/04/style/the-family-children-teaching-too-much-too-soon.html# |work=The New York Times |page=11}} In 1987,{{rp|10}} a Channel Four documentary series Hot House People was seen by millions of viewers, telling them that every child should be "programmed for genius" and has a potential intelligence greater than that of Leonardo da Vinci.{{sfn|Howe|1990|pp=4-5}}
Some scholars have criticized hothousing, labeling it as early maturity of learning.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MOx8CgAAQBAJ&q=Hothousing+education+children&pg=PT31|title=The Education Of Karl Witte - Or, The Training Of The Child|last=Bruce|first=H. Addington|date=2013-04-16|publisher=Read Books Ltd|isbn=9781447490036|language=en}}
Famous people who underwent hothousing
|url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/scotland-travel/cruel-experiment-that-left-its-mark-on-a-very-precocious-boy-733swrhksq3
|title='Cruel' experiment that left its mark on a very precocious boy
|author=Ben Macintyre
|date=19 May 2007
|accessdate=22 October 2010
|newspaper=The Sunday Times
|url-status=live
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250413035446/https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/scotland-travel/cruel-experiment-that-left-its-mark-on-a-very-precocious-boy-733swrhksq3
|archive-date=13 April 2025}}
|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2007/sep/16/healthandwellbeing.genetics
|title=Holding back the years
|author=Tom Templeton
|newspaper=The Guardian
|date=16 September 2007
|accessdate=22 October 2010}}
- Val McDermid
- Edith Stern{{cite book |last1=Walmsley |first1=Jane |last2=Margolis |first2=Jonathan |title=Hot House People: Can We Create Super Human Beings? |date=1987 |publisher=Pan Books |location=London |pages=124–126}}
- Ruth Lawrence{{cite news|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-math-prodigy-who-graduated-oxford-at-13-is-now-orthodox-mom-of-4-in-jlem/|title=UK math prodigy who graduated Oxford at 13 is now Orthodox mom of 4 in J'lem|author=of Israel staff, Times|work=The Times of Israel|date=July 30, 2016|accessdate=July 31, 2016}}
References
{{Reflist}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Gallagher |first1=Jeanette M. |last2=Coché |first2=Judith |title=Hothousing: The clinical and educational concerns over pressuring young children |journal=Early Childhood Research Quarterly |date=1987 |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=203–210 |doi=10.1016/0885-2006(87)90030-5 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0885200687900305 |issn=0885-2006|url-access=subscription }}
- {{cite book |last1=Howe |first1=Michael J. A. |author-link1=Michael J. A. Howe |title=Sense and Nonsense about Hothouse Children: A Practical Guide for Parents and Teachers |date=1990 |publisher=BPS Books |isbn=978-1-85433-039-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EwyOQgAACAAJ |language=en}}
External links
- [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pric/is_198700/ai_157933432 Hothousing Young Children: Implications for Early Childhood Policy and Practice] by Tynette W. Hills, published by ERIC Educational Reports - article urging parents to be cautious about hothousing
- [https://archive.today/20140511035933/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-5102663.html Child prodigies 'damaged for life by hothousing'] - article by Judith Judd from Independent (London)
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