Hothousing

For other uses, see Hothouse (disambiguation).

Hothousing is a form of education for children, involving intense study of a topic in order to stimulate the child's mind. The goal is to take normal or bright children and boost them to a level of intellectual functioning above the norm.[1] Advocates of the practice claim that it is essential for the brightest to flourish intellectually, while critics claim that it does more harm than good and can lead a child to abandon the area studied under such a scheme later in life.

Development

It was Irving Sigel who first introduced the term "hothousing" in 1987 after the greenhouse farming method, defining it as "the process of inducing infants to acquire knowledge that is typically acquired at a later developmental level."[2] It was an analogy with the way vegetables are forced to ripen in this condition.[1] Sigel, who worked for the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, used it to refer to a child who is drilled in academic fields such as reading and math long before other children begin learning them in school.[3] The child is likened to a "hurried student" induced to acquire knowledge with emphasis on how it fits into a broader scheme of knowledge instead of acquiring bits of information.[4]

In 1985, a symposium titled "The Hot Housing of Young Children; So Much, So Soon" was held in Philadelphia. Most presenters at the symposium were critical of hothousing, with one presenter, Brian Sutton-Smith, remarking "If you get hothoused, you end up being a rotten tomato—or at least a pallid tomato".[5] In 1987,[6]: 10  a Channel Four documentary series Hot House People was seen by millions of viewers, telling them that every child should be "programmed for genius" and has a potential intelligence greater than that of Leonardo da Vinci.[7]

Some scholars have criticized hothousing, labeling it as early maturity of learning.[8]

Famous people who underwent hothousing

References

  1. ^ a b Jarvis, Matt; Chandler, Emma (2001). Angles on Child Psychology. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. p. 183. ISBN 0748759751.
  2. ^ Sigel, Irving E. (1987). "Does hothousing rob children of their childhood?". Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 2 (3): 211–225. doi:10.1016/0885-2006(87)90031-7. ISSN 0885-2006.
  3. ^ Diamond, Marian; Hopson, Janet (1999-01-01). Magic Trees of the Mind: How to Nurture your Child's Intelligence, Creativity, and Healthy Emotions from Birth Through Adolescence. Penguin. ISBN 9781101127438.
  4. ^ Colwell, Richard; Richardson, Carol (2002). The New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning: A Project of the Music Educators National Conference. New York: Oxford University Press, USA. p. 211. ISBN 9780195138849.
  5. ^ Collins, Glenn (November 4, 1985). "Children: Teaching Too Much, Too Soon?". The New York Times. p. 11.
  6. ^ a b Walmsley, Jane; Margolis, Jonathan (1987). Hot House People: Can We Create Super Human Beings?. London: Pan Books. pp. 124–126.
  7. ^ Howe 1990, pp. 4–5.
  8. ^ Bruce, H. Addington (2013-04-16). The Education Of Karl Witte - Or, The Training Of The Child. Read Books Ltd. ISBN 9781447490036.
  9. ^ a b Ben Macintyre (19 May 2007). "'Cruel' experiment that left its mark on a very precocious boy". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 13 April 2025. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  10. ^ Tom Templeton (16 September 2007). "Holding back the years". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  11. ^ of Israel staff, Times (July 30, 2016). "UK math prodigy who graduated Oxford at 13 is now Orthodox mom of 4 in J'lem". The Times of Israel. Retrieved July 31, 2016.


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