The Baby Genius Edutainment Complex by Alissa Quart

Question I: How does the author define the term "complex"?

It has two meanings. First, it is the intricate network of entrepreneurial innovations designed to bilk as much money every bit possible from well-intentioned admitting grossly insecure parents.

Therefore a complex, the first definition nosotros face up, is an overproduced industry designed to aggressively market a product often resulting in a gross exaggeration of the product'southward "need" for the consumer.

The 2nd meaning refers to the psychological condition known every bit a "complex" in which one has an exaggerated notion of ane's perceived strengths and/or weaknesses. Parents are fearful that their children will be left behind so they over-compensate with extreme, obsessive, and neurotic behavior.

This second definition of "complex," then refers to the ongoing sense of inferiority and inadequacy that compels people to compensate for their perceived shortcomings by behaving in irrational, self-destructive ways.

Question Ii: What forces brand the Baby Genius Edutainment Complex and then profitable?

One . The outset gene: narcissism, a form of vanity and self-centeredness so severe that the narcissist only acts in self-interest then that all other man beings, including the narcissist's children, are pawns whose sole purpose is to feed the narcissist'due south ego.

Pertaining to the BGE, narcissistic parents want their children to "succeed" in order that their children bring them glory and in event make the children extensions of themselves and their own egos.

Narcissists are never happy because their egos can never be sated (satisfied). This insatiable ego results in a futile quest to experience "big enough" or "great enough" so that no amount of monetary success or social status can feed the beastly ego sufficiently. As a result, narcissists are bitter, competitive. They tend to come across all other people as "opponents" in their ego quest. As a result, narcissists derive peachy glee from the failures and misfortunes of others.

Two . The 2nd factor is social Darwinism, the condition in which the strong get stronger and the weak fall behind and eventually die off. Our instincts know this to exist true then that we are possessed by a trigger-happy competitive streak that, if left unchecked, can actually destroy us. We must find the gold mean between competitiveness and altruism (pity for others). If we error too much in one extreme, nosotros will pay a heavy price.

In the context of the BEC, parents fearfulness their children will be left behind.

3 . A perverted sense of love. We don't feel "loved" unless we perform in a certain mode, unless we have the Wow Factor. This fear of not being loved compels us to embrace programs that promise to brand the states spectacular or "geniuses."

Four . Many of us take, knowingly or not, embraced the idea of "giftedness" every bit described on page 455. "Giftedness" is the idea that difficult work and ingenuity can awaken the dormant genius that is within every kid. "Giftedness" is uniform with the very American idea that we are not stuck in life but have the freedom or free will to be master's of our own destiny. Other cultures, in dissimilarity, encompass fate, the thought that we cannot change our life course.

Five . The clever marketing of the Mozart Upshot, the conventionalities that we tin stimulate brain growth by playing music in the womb and in early on infancy. This belief has reached religious proportions.

Six . Fear makes parents controlling and not surprisingly this need for control has made parents cover controlled play over free play. See page 459. Of grade, controlled play costs money and there is an industry to meet this demand.

Writing a Thesis for Today's Topic

Weak Thesis:

Alissa Quart's essay is about parents who suffocate their children with "genius products."

True, but besides obvious and too wide. And non actually a thesis at all but a fact.

Improve:

It'south clear that Quart's thesis has hit a nervus because it's all too true that parents hell-bent on making their children into "geniuses" are behaving in a morally bankrupt fashion. This egregious moral bankruptcy is evidenced by __________________, ____________________, ____________________, and ______________________.

Here's another thesis:

Who's McMahon to knock the fact that parents want the best for their children. I think raising a genius is a good thing.

Improve:

In his haste to leap on the Alissa Quart bandwagon, McMahon fails to empathize with well-intentioned parents who are using these then-chosen baby genius products, understandably, because they want to __________________, ________________________, ___________________, and ___________________.

Another thesis:

I'one thousand tired of McMahon beingness a parent hater. If parents want to immerse their children in babe genius products, more power to them. Hey, man, it beats making them impaired. Correct?

Here'south some other thesis.

Information technology's all a thing of avoiding extremes. I'm sure if parents want to utilize some of these so-called baby genius products, it volition do their children some good. Permit'south not throw away the baby with the bath water.

Rebuttal to the above thesis:

The writer'south bespeak, that baby genius products, can be beneficial, is an obfuscation of the existent issue, namely, that the majority of parents using these products are doing so in a misguided way evidenced by ___________________, _____________________, ___________________, and _______________________.

Another Good Thesis:

While certainly Quart identifies extreme and neurotic behavior, her alarmist essay fails to see that the babe genius complex tin be a good for you alternative to the infantile, dumbed-down entertainments that besides many American children embrace. Contrary to the portrayal of the "complex" that Quart then robustly demonizes, the genius manufacture is beneficial to children evidenced past ____________________, ______________________, ____________________, and _________________________.

Some other Effective Thesis:

Poor McMahon is a misguided soul whose rigorous defense force of the baby genius manufacture evidences his bullheaded eye to ______________________, ________________________, __________________________, and _______________________________.

 

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