Achtung Baby by
Sara Zaske is a memoir of sorts as she recounts her parenting experience while
living abroad in Germany. She describes the cultural shock and barriers as she
begins her life in Germany and a young mother of a toddler. Ms. Zaske discusses
the American view and attitudes of the German people and discovers it’s all
wrong. She also discusses the strengths in the German parenting styles and
their educational system and compares the weaknesses of the American parenting
styles and its educational system. She covers the topics of the attachment
theory which American parenting advice books seem to give great importance to
early education in play rather than instruction. The German educational system
is designed to let the children have an active role in what they learn and how
they learn. The children learn from the very beginning with hands on
experience. Is there anything Americans can learn from German parents?
Achtung Baby is an
interesting read as I discovered the German educational system and how the
parenting styles emphasizes teaching self-reliance and independence in their
children almost from the very beginning. Ms. Zaske asks that American take a
hard look as to why “we” don’t. While I disagreed with some of her assertions
about American parenting, you cannot argue with the fact that something needs
to change in American parenting. Ms. Zaske had excellent points. She points out
that Americans have the attitude of “work is life.” This attitude is that you
are defined by what you do for a living and it’s so true. I also found myself
realizing that I do do some of the things that German parents do for their
children in order to instill confidence and independence in their children. I
found Achtung Baby fascinating and I
recommend it for all parents as well as those who are becoming parents.
Achtung Baby
will be available
January 2, 2018
in hardcover and
eBook
No comments:
Post a Comment