Awaken the Genius in Your Child
Tauraso and Batzler
1981
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale was the 1950s answer to self-help. It has been recycled through books like The Secret (2006) and a host of other self help gurus. This basic philosophy is about have a mental attitude where one expects good things to happen and that energy will be transformed into actual good things. This book takes that philosophy to children and parents. I see some serious problems as a parenting philosophy and the amount of guilt that might fall on parents and kids. I keep thinking this is the parenting version of this book. You will have great kids if you just BELIEVE it and wish only positive outcomes.
Positively yours,
Mary
some would say reaching for a lightening bolt doesn’t show genius potential…
I think she is projecting it out of her palm…
I think she’s levitating. Or being sucked up by an alien tractor beam.
The parenting philosophy reminds me of a Simpsons’ Halloween episode where Ned Flanders rules a dystopian future- everyone must be relentlessly chip-diddly-chipper or face Re-Neducation.
Time for re-NED-ucation! Just relax and let the hooks do the work!
Recycle the cover art for an electrical safety pamphlet.
That cover! Don’t leave your child out in a lightening storm!
The way that little girl is dressed, I thought the book was from the ’40’s or ’50’s. I did a double-take when I saw the publication date.
Lightning, people, lightning.
In fairness to the “power of positive thinking,” the result of looking at things positively is that you will tend to subjectively interpret things in a better light or look for things to be happy about, not that it “causes” the objective universe to treat you better. This can lead to a happier life, not because better things are happening to you, but because you feel better about things that happen in general.
Good old “law of attraction.” It certainly attracted a lot of money to the authors’ wallets!