Magical Child [Paperback]

Magical Child, a classic work, profoundly questioned the current thinking on childbirth pratices, parenting, and educating our children. Now its daring ideas about how Western society is damaging our children, and how we can better nurture them and ourselves, ring truer than ever. From the very instant of birth, says Joseph Chilton Pearce, the human child has only one concern: to learn all that there is to learn about the world. This planet is the child's playground, and nothing should interfere with a child's play. Raised this way, the Magical Child is a happy genius, capable of anything, equipped to fulfill his amazing potential.

Expanding on the ideas of internationally acclaimed child psychologist Jean Piaget, Pearce traces the growth of the mind-brain from birth to adulthood. He connects the alarming rise in autism, hyperkinetic behavior, childhood schizophrenia, and adolescent suicide to the all too common errors we make in raising and educating our children. Then he shows how we can restore the astonishing wealth of creative intelligence that is the birthright of every human being. Pearce challenged all our notions about child rearing, and in the process challenges us to re-examine ourselves. Pearce's message is simple: it is never too late to play, for we are all Magical Children.

Part II. The World
8. Concept
9. Cycle of Competence
10. Establishing the Matrix
11. World As It Is
12. Filling in the Details
13. Division of Labor
14. Primary Perceptions
15. Play

Part III. Transforming the Given
16. Dancing Through the Crack
17. The Two-Way Flow
18. Toward Autonomy
19. The Cycle of Creative Competence
20. Thinking about Thinking
21. JournlÓ!