Question One: How does the author define the term
“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.
Therefore a complex, the first definition we face, is an
overproduced industry designed to aggressively market a product often resulting
in a gross exaggeration of the product’s “need” for the consumer.
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.
This second definition of “complex,” then refers to the
ongoing sense of inferiority and inadequacy that compels people to compensate
for their perceived shortcomings by behaving in irrational, self-destructive
ways.
Question Two: What forces make the Baby Genius
Edutainment Complex so profitable?
One. The first
factor: narcissism, a form of vanity and self-centeredness so severe that the
narcissist only acts in self-interest so that all other human beings, including
the narcissist’s children, are pawns whose sole purpose is to feed the
narcissist’s ego.
Pertaining to the BGE, narcissistic parents want their
children to “succeed” in order that their children bring them glory and in
effect make the children extensions of themselves and their own egos.
Narcissists are never happy because their egos can never be
sated (satisfied). This insatiable ego results in a futile quest to feel “big
enough” or “great enough” so that no amount of monetary success or social
status can feed the beastly ego sufficiently. As a result, narcissists are
bitter, competitive. They tend to see all other people as “opponents” in their
ego quest. As a result, narcissists derive great glee from the failures and
misfortunes of others.
Two. The second
factor is social Darwinism, the condition in which the strong get stronger and
the weak fall behind and eventually die off. Our instincts know this to be true
so that we are possessed by a fierce competitive streak that, if left
unchecked, can actually destroy us. We must find the golden mean between
competitiveness and altruism (compassion for others). If we error too much in
one extreme, we will pay a heavy price.
In the context of the BEC, parents fear their children will
be left behind.
Three. A perverted
sense of love. We don’t feel “loved” unless we perform in a certain way, unless
we have the Wow Factor. This fear of not being loved compels us to embrace
programs that promise to make us spectacular or “geniuses.”
Four. Many of us
have, knowingly or not, embraced the idea of “giftedness” as described on page
455. “Giftedness” is the idea that hard work and ingenuity can awaken the
dormant genius that is within every child. “Giftedness” is compatible with the
very American idea that we are not stuck in life but have the freedom or free
will to be master’s of our own destiny. Other cultures, in contrast, embrace
fate, the idea that we cannot change our life course.
Five. The clever
marketing of the Mozart Effect, the belief that we can stimulate brain growth
by playing music in the womb and in early infancy. This belief has reached
religious proportions.
Six. Fear makes
parents controlling and not surprisingly this need for control has made parents
embrace controlled play over free play. See page 459. Of course, controlled
play costs money and there is an industry to meet this need.
Writing a Thesis for Today’s Topic
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:
It’s clear that Quart’s thesis has hit a nerve because it’s
all too true that parents hell-bent on making their children into “geniuses”
are behaving in a morally bankrupt way. This egregious moral bankruptcy is
evidenced by __________________, ____________________, ____________________,
and ______________________.
Here’s another thesis:
Who’s McMahon to knock the fact that parents want the best
for their children. I think raising a genius is a good thing.
Better:
In his haste to jump on the Alissa Quart bandwagon, McMahon
fails to sympathize with well-intentioned parents who are using these so-called
baby genius products, understandably, because they want to __________________,
________________________, ___________________, and ___________________.
Another thesis:
I’m tired of McMahon being a parent hater. If parents want
to immerse their children in baby genius products, more power to them. Hey,
man, it beats making them dumb. Right?
Here’s another thesis.
It’s all a matter of avoiding extremes. I’m sure if parents
want to use some of these so-called baby genius products, it will do their
children some good. Let’s not throw away the baby with the bath water.
Rebuttal to the above thesis:
The writer’s point, that baby genius products, can be
beneficial, is an obfuscation of the real issue, namely, that the majority of
parents using these products are doing so in a misguided way evidenced by
___________________, _____________________, ___________________, and
_______________________.
Another Good 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 is beneficial to children
evidenced by ____________________, ______________________,
____________________, and _________________________.
Another Effective Thesis:
Poor McMahon is a misguided soul whose rigorous defense of
the baby genius industry evidences his blind eye to ______________________,
________________________, __________________________, and _______________________________.
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