Ashley Merryman
NurtureShock: New Twists That Shape Children’s Success
March 1, 2012 at Washington Cathedral in Redmond
Tickets: $20 in advance/$25 at the door
Topic age range: 3–12 years

"Many of modern society's strategies for nurturing children are in fact backfiring — because key twists in the science have been overlooked" -- NurtureShock.com

Ashley Merryman and Po Bronson's NurtureShock: New Thinking about Children is a major New York Times bestseller featured on over 35 "Year's Best" lists and is being translated into 16 different languages. The authors have won nine national awards for their reporting on the science of human development and have a new book coming on kids and competition, for publication spring 2013.

In this lecture, Ashley Merryman will discuss how traditional parenting methods may in reality impede a child's development. Confronting the imbalance between ‘good intentions’ and ‘good ideas’, Merryman has identified hidden “thrive factors” that help children flourish, combining scientific, psychological and social research to re-think the steps parents and society take to bring up the best children possible.

"NurtureShock is one of the most important books you will read this year.  Bronson and Merryman move parenting out of the realm of folklore and into the realm of science -- and reveal what decades of studies teach us about the complexities of raising happy, healthy, self-motivated kids.  As a writer, I was impressed by the prodigious research and keen analysis.  As a father, I was consumed with taking notes and exhilarated by all I learned."

-Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind

Merryman holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts and a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University. Previously she was an attorney and a speechwriter in the Clinton administration. Most recently she has written for Time Magazine, Newsweek, the Daily Beast on a range of topics concerning child development, child education, and educational testing. Besides her writing, she currently directs an all-volunteer tutoring program for inner city children in Los Angeles. Read more about the upcoming lecture in ParentMap's recent interview with Merryman. 

Tickets: $20 in advance/$25 at the door

Check out the rest of this year's ParentMap Lecture Series