●Newly graduate employees lacking perseverance to fit in the work environment We often hear difficulties of managing new and young employees who get depressed easily when they are scolded by their bosses and sometimes they don’t even come to work from the next day. Some young employees do not obey the instructions and do not try to make improvements in work. Violence in Japanese elementary schools has been on the rise, which indicates how children communicate with each other is also changing. The early-age education gives certain effects on children such as helping them to enter prestigious schools, but these effects do not last. Furthermore, children nowadays have less opportunities to learn independence and diversity through playing with friends, experiencing the nature and making adventures. From the perspectives of parenting and career development, the book focuses on the competitive skills that young people should acquire to do better in real world.

●Need of non-cognitive skills, such as self-control. James Heckman, who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2000, proved in his over 40 years of studies that early education had the temporal effect on increasing intellectual capacity. However, he concludes that it is not the only factor leading to have good educational background and high-income career. In fact, the early education has lost its effects on building the cognitive skills (intellectual capacity) by the age of eight. Looking at the data after reaching adulthood, however, those who received early education had higher educational degree and annual income. It suggests that acquiring non-cognitive skills such as cooperating with others, having patience and motivation are keys to success after the early education. To develop non-cognitive skills in childhood, parents need to have the attitude to wait for their children to reach a conclusion by themselves, and think together with them. This book is convincing because it discusses parenting based on the latest findings in psychology and pedagogy, while emphasizing on the need of fostering patience, cooperativeness, and independence of children. This is a must-read book for parents who want to find clues on raising their toddlers and elementary school children.