Discovering the Culture of Childhood
SEVERAL YEARS AGO, during a trip to Japan with her young family, Emily noticed something striking: the way she interacted as an outsider in a foreign country resembled her role as custom paper writer and family childcare provider. She began to wonder if the interactions between adults and children were fundamentally cultural. What if children were members of their own culture?
After years of research and writing comes Discovering the Culture of Childhood (Redleaf Press, 2016), a book that transforms thinking about childhood. Why do children play? Why do children believe in monsters? Why do children exclude one another from play? This revolutionary book uses humor and story-telling to explore a profound new way of understanding children.
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“Discovering the Culture of Childhood is a must read for all who teach children, have children, or work with children –especially for those who write about or teach all of the above.”
Carol Garhart Mooney,
Author
“Emily Plank helps us learn to appreciate children for who they are – fully formed children not unformed adults – and thereby
overcome our tendency to try always to make them more like us.”
Peter Gray,
Research Professor
“Emily Plank has gifted us with a fascinating lens to the wondrous culture of childhood where time is not measured by productivity and where personal connections are valued above all else.”
Jenna Bilmes,
Author
“Emily Plank opens our eyes to see we are everyday travelers in a distinct and foreign land: the culture of childhood.”
Heather Shumaker,
Author
“I read Discovering the Culture of Childhood twice back-to-back. It changed me. I have been a family child care provider for 40 years and read hundreds of early childhood books, but this one made me reflect and think deeper than any other.”
BJ Richards,
Family Child Care Provider
“Emily Plank invites any adult who cares about children to consider a transformative view of childhood…seeing the incredible competency of children in each and every stage of their childhood.”
Gaye Gronlund,
Author