11/29/2020

Quiet by Susan Cain

I loved this.

Cain writes about the trend toward socialization in the early-mid 1900s, and how Ivy League universities began to look specifically for highly social applicants.

Something about NYC’s obsession with socialized children has always turned me off of the entire concept —> moving from Germany, where kids are independent, not babied, and allowed childhoods (ex: German playgrounds, school starting at 7, etc) to NYC, where children are coddled (every NYC playground is practically padded), sleep trained (cry it out! self soothe!) and tested (18 month placement exam for preschool!) has especially hyperbolized my parenting experience. Nothing New Yorkers seem to do to their children makes any sense to me, so I trend for the opposite.