Originally Posted by indigo
There are many who push and press their kids to achievement and even to emulation of common characteristics of giftedness. A telltale sign may be the use of any adult-imposed external reward/punishment as an incentive for learning/performance, rather than the child feeling internally/intrinsically rewarded by attainment of the knowledge which answers his/her question. The use of external rewards/punishments was evident in the writings of Amy Chua, and may be more subtle among parents one encounters every day... for example giving a child his toy truck after he recites poems for the camera. Unfortunately hothousing can be successful because children often "want" to receive their rewards and avoid punishments, therefore they may "want" to learn/perform as dictated. This can be detrimental to a child.

I'm sorry, but I just don't see how the use of rewards for work well done is possibly a telltale sign of a hot housing parent. Perhaps you're speaking more of the use of excessive punishment?

In the world of adult work, what of bonus incentives, or the threat of a demotion/getting fired? I think using rewards/punishments for performance/non-performance normal.
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When I first signed in to Davidson, I had a signature line that went something like, "You can't teach an elephant to dance." I got a lot of bad reviews on that and it went bye-bye. However, I feel this expresses my feelings on hot housing to a gifted level. It's just not possible. If reading at three qualifies a child as gifted and that child was shown Sesame Street and had a book of the alphabet before then, is that hot housing? If so, why don't more children read at three, what with the readily available resource of tv and the library?

Oh, and I once read a review of the Baby Can Read. It involved isolating the child in a restraint of some kind, in a dark room, without anything but the program playing. THAT is hot housing.