It Starts At Home: Letting Children Collaborate | Dr. Barbara Rogoff | TEDxSantaCruz
Summary
TLDRThis talk highlights the importance of children's involvement in collaborative activities at home, contrasting the segregated lifestyle of middle-class children in the U.S. with the more integrated approach in Mayan communities. It emphasizes the dignity and value derived from contribution and the challenges faced by middle-class families in fostering collaboration. The speaker suggests that including children in household tasks without assigning individual chores can promote a sense of family unity and develop essential skills for teamwork and initiative.
Takeaways
- 🧑🔬 Research in a Mayan community in Guatemala has shown that children are competent and collaborative, even in challenging circumstances.
- 🏠 Middle-class children in the United States are often segregated from community life, which began about a century ago with compulsory schooling and child labor laws.
- 👶 Children naturally want to contribute and help out, as evidenced by examples of a three-year-old in Peru and the speaker's grandson.
- 🏡 Middle-class children in the U.S. are less likely to help at home voluntarily, often requiring chores and rewards, which can be a source of family stress.
- 🤔 There is a puzzle as to why middle-class children do not continue to help as they grow up, despite their innate desire to contribute.
- 🌎 Children in other communities, such as Mexico, are more likely to help at home without being asked, indicating cultural differences in parenting and values.
- 👨👩👧👦 Parents in Mexico value their children's contributions and support their initiative, fostering a collaborative spirit from a young age.
- 🔄 Skills learned at home, such as collaboration, are carried over into other settings, benefiting children in activities like school projects.
- 🤝 Middle-class European-American children often divide activities or take turns, which does not foster the same level of collaboration as seen in children from other backgrounds.
- 👨👩👧 Parents can foster collaboration at home by working together with their children, valuing their contributions, and treating helping as a normal family activity.
- 🌟 The speaker emphasizes the importance of children contributing and collaborating for their development, effective teamwork, harmonious relationships, and world peace.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the speaker's research in the Mayan community in Guatemala?
-The speaker's research focuses on the competence and collaborative nature of children in the Mayan community and how it contrasts with middle-class life in the United States.
Why does the speaker suggest that the segregation of children from community life has gone too far?
-The speaker believes that while the initial segregation of children from working in factories was important, it has been taken too far to the point where children spend most of their time in adult-controlled settings, limiting their opportunities to contribute and learn collaboration.
What is the connection between children's contribution and their sense of human dignity and value?
-The speaker posits that making a contribution is a source of human dignity and value, and the lack of opportunity to contribute can negatively impact a child's sense of self-worth.
Why does the speaker emphasize the importance of collaboration for children's development and the world's challenges?
-Collaboration is an essential skill for children's development and is crucial for addressing global challenges, as it fosters a sense of community and the ability to work together effectively.
What is the general attitude of middle-class children towards helping out at home according to the speaker?
-Middle-class children generally do not help much at home voluntarily, often requiring parents to assign chores, use charts, and sometimes offer rewards or punishments for compliance.
How do children in other communities, such as in Mexico, differ in their willingness to help at home?
-Children in other communities, like Mexico, are more likely to help at home without being asked, and their parents value and include their contributions, supporting the children's initiative.
What is the role of the parents in fostering children's collaboration skills at home according to the script?
-Parents play a crucial role by including children in household tasks, valuing their contributions, supporting their initiative, and treating helping as a normal part of family life.
How does the speaker describe the behavior of middle-class European-American children in collaborative activities compared to children of Mexican heritage?
-Middle-class European-American children often divide activities or take turns without sharing ideas, while children of Mexican heritage are more likely to collaborate, share ideas, and work together.
What are some of the skills children learn from helping at home that contribute to their ability to collaborate?
-Children learn to align with others, be alert to their surroundings, considerate of others' efforts, and take initiative to help without being asked.
What is the speaker's final call to action for parents and the community regarding children's involvement and contribution?
-The speaker calls for parents and the community to include children, give them opportunities to contribute, and learn to collaborate, which is essential for their development and the world's harmony.
Outlines
🌏 The Impact of Segregation on Middle-Class Children's Collaboration Skills
The speaker reflects on 40 years of research in a Mayan community in Guatemala, noting the competence and collaborative nature of children there. This observation contrasts with the challenges faced by middle-class children in the United States, who are often segregated from community life. The speaker highlights the historical shift to compulsory education and the exclusion of children from the workforce as the beginning of this segregation. The result is a generation of children who spend most of their time in adult-controlled environments, limiting their opportunities to contribute meaningfully to society and learn collaboration skills. The speaker encourages the audience to consider the importance of children's contributions to family and community, using examples of children from different cultures who naturally help out at home without being asked or rewarded.
👨👩👧👦 Fostering Collaboration at Home: Lessons from Mexican Families
The second paragraph delves into the importance of children learning to collaborate through helping at home. It contrasts the attitudes of Mexican children, who view helping around the house as a natural part of family life, with those of middle-class European-American children, who often require incentives or assignments to participate. The speaker discusses the benefits of children learning collaboration skills at home, such as being able to apply these skills in other settings like school. The summary also points out that children from families where parents and children work together are more likely to collaborate effectively. The speaker suggests that parents can foster collaboration by working alongside their children, appreciating their efforts, and treating helping as a normal family activity. The paragraph concludes with a call to action for communities to include children and provide them with opportunities to contribute, emphasizing the importance of these skills for personal development, effective teamwork, harmonious relationships, and world peace.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Mayan community
💡Collaboration
💡Middle-class life
💡Segregation
💡Contribution
💡Chore charts
💡Initiative
💡Anthropologist
💡Dignity
💡Cultural differences
💡Parental involvement
Highlights
Forty years of research in a Mayan community in Guatemala reveals the competence and collaborative nature of children.
Middle-class life in the United States faces challenges due to children's segregation from community life.
The segregation of children began about a century ago with compulsory schooling and exclusion from factories.
Most children in the United States spend time in adult-controlled settings, limiting their opportunities to contribute.
Contribution is a source of human dignity and value, and its absence hinders learning to collaborate.
Children learn to collaborate by helping out at home, but middle-class children generally do not.
Middle-class parents often assign chores and use charts, causing stress and struggles over children's help at home.
Children everywhere naturally want to help, as seen with Anali in Peru and the speaker's grandson Soli.
Mexican parents include children in household tasks without asking, valuing their contributions.
Mexican children view helping at home as normal and part of being in a family.
Children who help at home are more likely to help in other settings, such as a science activity.
Mexican heritage children are more likely to collaborate and share ideas in activities.
Middle-class European-American children often divide activities and do not share ideas as effectively.
Children learn important collaboration skills by helping at home, such as aligning with others and taking initiative.
Parents can foster collaboration by working together with children and treating helping as a normal family activity.
Community involvement is essential for children to learn to contribute and collaborate, impacting their development and the world.
Transcripts
[Music]
in my 40 Years of research in a Mayan
community in Guatemala I've been really
impressed with how competent and how
collaborative the children
are and it's made me aware of some very
challenging circumstances in middle
class life in the United States I'd like
you to look around you could we have
house lights please I'd like you to look
around you and everybody who's under the
age of 12 please raise your
hand I don't see anybody raising their
hand maybe there's one or two thank you
if you're here um but where are the
children in middle class Society we have
segregated children from community life
and this segregation began about a
century ago when our nation began to
require all children to attend school
and when we excluded children from
working in factories now that was an
important change but we've taken it too
far now most children in the United
States spend a good deal of their time
in set in settings that are only for
children but are controlled by adults
now this this makes it difficult for
them to have opportunities to contribute
to important
Endeavors and this matters because
making a contribution is a source of
human dignity and
value in addition not being able to
contribute makes it difficult to learn
to
collaborate in collaboration of course
is an important skill for children as
they develop and for our world as we
confront the problems in uh that face
us so one of the places where children
learn to collaborate is by helping out
at home uh consider do your children
help you out at
home
voluntarily middleclass children
generally don't do much helping at home
even when their parents try to get them
to do it middle class parents often um
assign chores use chore charts to keep
track and sometimes punish children or
pay them for
compliance well this is a major source
of stress in middle class families the
struggles over children helping at
home but here's a puzzle in it's
confusing why middle class children
don't want to help because little
children every here everywhere want want
to pitch in on the left you see
three-year-old anali she lives in the
high Andes of
Peru when a an anthropologist showed up
at her house anali took over the role of
Hostess while her parents prepared a
meal she was confident in this role and
went to get some water she graciously
offered a cup of water to the visiting
Anthropologist and kept one for herself
saying and
let us drink
together and on your right you see my
three-year-old grandson soli eagerly
mowing my yard now the lawn mower is
about as big as he is but he was so
happy to make a real contribution that
he pushed the lawnmower around the yard
for 20 minutes mowing the lawn and
squealing with the light the whole
time so so why do middle class children
not continue to want to help children in
some other communities maintain an
interest in helping around the house um
we interviewed parents in Mexico and
mothers told us it was just normal for
children to help without being asked one
mother said well there's days when my
8-year-old comes home and she says mom
you came home really tired but let's
clean up the house and she turns on the
radio and she says mom how how about you
do that part and I'll do this part and
look get the house
clean these mothers
say how how um when we asked them how
they helped their children learn to
collaborate they said that they include
even the smallest children and they
value their
contributions they also support the
children's
initiative so they say it would not be
good for them to ask the children to
help because it would make it difficult
for the children to learn it needs to
come from the
heart we also asked Mexican children
about children helping at home and they
said also yes of course children help
around the house everybody helps we're
just part of the family everybody in the
family helps
out um the things that occur at home
matter children who um move in their
their Liv into different situations they
use what they learn at home in other
settings for example children who help
at home were more likely to help an
instructor manage a science
activity and when children were asked to
plan excuse me to plan routs through a
model grocery store they also carried
forward what they were familiar with
from home Mexican heritage children in
uh Santa Cruz actually were more like
to collaborate with each other sharing
ideas with each other but middleclass
children from European American
backgrounds often divided the activity
some of them did it like the boy you see
on the right who's pushing his sister
away so that he has the chance to do the
activity all by
himself sometimes the middle class
european- American kids took turns but
that also does not involve sharing ideas
and some sometimes they one of the
children took a boss roll and the other
child simply had to do as they were
told the children who took the boss role
tended to be children from families
where parents assigned chores and the
children who collaborated skillfully
were mostly from families where parents
and children work
together by contributing to work around
the house children learn important
skills for collaboration they learn to
align with other
people they learn to be alert to what is
going on around them they learn to be
considerate of other people's efforts
and activities and they learn to take
initiative to help without being
asked so what can parents do to Foster
children's collaboration at home well
most importantly they can pitch in
together with children rather than
assigning individual chores it makes it
much more interesting in fun if you can
do it
together parents can also facilitate
children's involvement and contributions
and appreciate the efforts that the kids
make in addition they can treat helping
as a normal part of family
life so consider this would you pay your
partner for helping around the house or
praise them for helping oh wow good boy
I'll put a star on your chore
chart though I have heard that it's an
aphrodisiac for women when men do
chores yeah the women are
clapping so individual parents can make
a difference but it's much easier if the
whole Community includes children gives
them the opportunity to contribute a
century ago when we began to segregate
children from community life we took
things too far now it's essential for
the upcoming generation to have a chance
to contribute and to learn to
collaborate this is important for their
own development but it's also important
for Effective teams at work it's
important for Harmony in marriages and
in
families and it's important for peace in
the world thank you very much
thank you
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