Elkind

David Elkind (born March 11, 1931) is an American child psychologist and author. Elkind and his family relocated to California when he was still a teenager. He studied at the University of California at Los Angeles and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1952 and Doctorate in Philosophy in 1955. David also earned an honorary doctorate in Science at the Rhode Island College (1987). Two main ideas (especially important for adolescents): 1. Personal Fable. This is the idea that students create personal stories. They believe that nobody understands them. They think that nobody has ever experienced what they have experienced. 2. Imaginary Audience. Students think that everyone is watching them. If they fall, they think everyone saw the fall and they believe everyone else is laughing at them. Students construct an “imaginary audience” and they respond to that imaginary audience and their emotions are influenced by the imaginary audience. A longtime professor at Tufts University, his groundbreaking books — The Hurried Child, The Power of Play and Miseducation informed early childhood education professionals of the possible dangers of "pushing down" the elementary school curriculum into the very early years of a child's life.^[2] By doing so, he argued, teachers and parents alike could lapse into developmentally inappropriate instructional and learning practices that may distort the smooth development of learning. He is associated with the belief of decline of social markers.^[3] From Wikipedia (Full Wikipedia article)