In The Dolphin Parent, Harvard-trained psychiatrist, expert in human motivation, and mother of three Dr. Shimi Kang provides a guide to the art and science of inspiring children to develop their own internal drive and lifelong personal aspirations.
In The Dolphin Parent, Harvard-trained psychiatrist, expert in human motivation, and mother of three Dr. Shimi Kang provides a guide to the art and science of inspiring children to develop their own internal drive and lifelong personal aspirations.
Drawing on the latest neuroscience and behavioral research, Dr. Kang transcends cultural limits and shows why authoritarian “tiger parents” and permissive “jellyfish parents” actually hinder self-motivation. She proposes a powerful new and universal parenting model: the intelligent, strong, joyful, and highly social dolphin. Dolphin parents focus on maintaining balance in their children’s lives to compassionately, yet authoritatively guide them toward the key 21st century skills of “CQ”—creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.
Combining irrefutable science with unforgettable real-life stories from around the world, The Dolphin Parent walks readers through Dr. Kang’s four-part method for cultivating self-motivation. As the fifth child of immigrant parents who struggled to give their children the “best” in life—Dr. Kang’s mother could not read and she was never enrolled in a single extra-curricular activity—she argues that by trusting our deepest natural intuition about what is best for our kids, we will allow them to develop key traits of adaptability, community-mindedness, and CQ to empower them to thrive in our increasingly competitive and complex world.
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Ninety Four percent of employers agree that collaboration is an imperative skill for 21st century job success for new graduates. Even though social bonding is in our human nature, we often forget this truth. I see it all the time — highly intelligent university and college students who minimize their social connection with others because they deem their peers as opponents rather than teammates. This solitary “tiger” mindset often leads students to become overly competitive and lacking in important social skills. The National Education Association (NEA) deems collaboration as an essential skill for students to learn, because it is inherent in how work is accomplished and how our workforce functions. In my research, I have found the characteristics of one of the world’s most altruistic mammals, the dolphin, to be a powerful metaphor for collaborative teaching and learning approaches.
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‘Helicopter parenting’ has become synonymous with parents who hover too much, but what are Tiger, Jellyfish and Dolphin parents? Dr. Shimi Kang defines the animal metaphors associated with parenting styles.
