ABSTRACT
In our 2016 book, Do Parents Matter? (LeVine & LeVine, 2016), we examined the parenting of toddlers in many parts of the world, including Africa, India and the Pacific. Across those cultures and contexts, “being alongside children” varies significantly, and understandings of normality and precocity become blurred, and sometimes confusing. This chapter considers “precocious children”, and the nature of cultural priming by parents and others. At times of global tension and conflict, such “priming” and differing conceptions of virtue are of more than “comparative” interest and have particular importance for those responsible for pedagogy and policy development.
