The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children

by Alison Gopnik

Farrar, Straus and Giroux · 2016

A philosophical and scientific case that the goal of childhood is not to produce a particular kind of adult but to allow children the protected time and space to explore, play, and discover who they are. Gopnik draws on developmental psychology, anthropology, and philosophy to dismantle the premise of intensive, outcome-focused parenting.