1A Study Guide for “The Baby Genius Edutainment Complex” by Alissa Quart 450

 

 

One. (Quiz question): What is the Baby Genius Edutainment Complex?

 

It has two meanings. First, it is the intricate network of entrepreneurial innovations designed to bilk as much money as possible from well-intentioned albeit grossly insecure parents.

 

The second meaning refers to the psychological condition known as a “complex” in which one has an exaggerated notion of one’s perceived strengths and/or weaknesses. Parents are fearful that their children will be left behind so they over-compensate with extreme, obsessive, and neurotic behavior.

 

Two. Lexicon

 

1. Bilk
2. prodigy
3. social Darwinism (fear of not being gifted or up to par; the fear of not being able to compete)
4. fad
5. pejorative
6. 2 meanings of “complex”; see 451
7. America’s psychotic delusion: 451 bottom and 452 top
8. Precocity
9. Entrepreneurial innovation
10. Impetus
11. Mozart effect 453 top
12. Debunked (Mozart effect not reproduced in further studies)
13. Narcissistic parenting; parents who live through their children; they raise their children to bring glory to themselves. See 459.
14. Quackery; see 454 prenatal BabyPlus System
15. Correlation confused with causality; see page 469 top

 

 

Three. What are the causes behind the Baby Genius Edutainment Complex?

 

1. Perverted sense of love by which I mean that we live in a society where we don’t feel loved unless we perform in some spectacular way. We have to have the wow factor or we will be dismissed as nobodies.
2. Parental narcissism, that is the need for parents to feed their vanity by living vicariously through their children’s accomplishments. In effect, these narcissistic parents use their children as trophies.
3. Fear that one’s child will be behind.
4. Ruthless ambition rooted in social Darwinism, which tells us we must see life essentially as a competition with winners and losers. And of course we want to be on the winning end.
5. Embracing the idea of “giftedness” as seen on page 455
6. The clever marketing Mozart effect of the early 1990s and the gullible parents who believe in it as if it were some kind of religion.
7. The parents’ preference of direct play over free play; see 459

 

 

 

Weak Thesis:

 

Alissa Quart’s essay is about parents who suffocate their children with “genius products.”

 

True, but too obvious and too broad. And not really a thesis at all but a fact.

 

Better Thesis:

 

While certainly Quart identifies extreme and neurotic behavior, her alarmist essay fails to see that the baby genius complex can be a healthy alternative to the infantile, dumbed-down entertainments that too many American children embrace. Contrary to the portrayal of the “complex” that Quart so robustly demonizes, the genius industry ____________________, ______________________, ____________________, and _________________________.

 

Better Thesis:

 

Poor McMahon is a misguided soul whose rigorous defense of the baby genius industry evidences his blind eye to ______________________, ________________________, __________________________, and _______________________________.