The Formula: Unlocking the Secrets to Raising Highly Successful Children

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 247 ratings

Price: 21.88

Last update: 07-01-2024


About this item

We all want our children to reach their fullest potential - to be smart and well adjusted, and to make a difference in the world. We wonder why, for some people, success seems to come so naturally.

Could the secret be how they were parented?

This book unveils how parenting helped shape some of the most fascinating people you will ever encounter, by doing things that almost any parent can do. You don't have to be wealthy or influential to ensure your child reaches their greatest potential. What you do need is commitment - and the strategies outlined in this book.

In The Formula: Unlocking the Secrets to Raising Highly Successful Children, Harvard economist Ronald Ferguson, named in a New York Times profile as the foremost expert on the US educational "achievement gap," along with award-winning journalist Tatsha Robertson, reveal an intriguing blueprint for helping children from all types of backgrounds become successful adults.

Informed by hundreds of interviews, the book includes never-before-published insights from the "How I was Parented Project" at Harvard University, which draws on the varying life experiences of 120 Harvard students. Ferguson and Robertson have isolated a pattern with eight roles of the "Master Parent" that make up the Formula: the Early Learning Partner, the Flight Engineer, the Fixer, the Revealer, the Philosopher, the Model, the Negotiator, and the GPS Navigational Voice.

The Formula combines the latest scientific research on child development, learning, and brain growth and illustrates with life stories of extraordinary individuals - from the Harvard-educated Ghanian entrepreneur who, as the young child of a rural doctor, was welcomed in his father's secretive late-night political meetings; to the nation's youngest state-wide elected official, whose hardworking father taught him math and science during grueling days on the family farm in Kentucky; to the DREAMer immigration lawyer whose low-wage mother pawned her wedding ring to buy her academically outstanding child a special flute.

The Formula reveals strategies on how you - regardless of race, class, or background - can help your children become the best they can be and shows ways to maximize their chances for happy and purposeful lives.


Top reviews from the United States

Robert Austin MD
5.0 out of 5 stars “The Formula” in the hands of every parent. Every child has the potential for a successful lif
Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2019
After a career of fifty years as a practicing pediatrician. I find “The Formula” to be the most comprehensive, compelling and refreshing book that gives parents and their support system a clear understanding of human interaction in brain development. The roll of parenting as defined inThe Formula is inclusive of basic guidelines parents and their support system can follow to enhance the success throughout their child’s life, irrespective of their economic, educational or ethnicity. This book must be in the hands or every parent to read and discuss.
It is the greatest gift that I share with parents.
Robert F Austin, MD
R J Austin Consulting, Development and Training
T. Simmons
5.0 out of 5 stars Great tool for parents and every member of a child's village!
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2019
As an active and involved aunt to two nieces and three nephews, I was looking for advice to support my siblings' efforts at setting up their children for success. "The Formula" is a thoughtfully written guide for when to allow your children to struggle to learn on their own and when to nudge them along, the importance of play in learning and development and fostering the passion for learning. An enjoyable must-read.
Reader and Parent
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book on how to parent successful kids
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2019
This is a fascinating study...the result of 15 years of research. The findings validate what some parents instinctively know. There are things you can do to give your child a strong foundation regardless of family income, race, or socio-economic circumstances. These are universal truths. Reading together from a young age, for example. So many helpful insights. This is an important and ground-breaking book.
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Learn the Formula now
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2019
I wish I had this booking while raising my own children. I would recommend anyone raising children today to memorize the formula for raising children with smarts, agency and purpose. Although many parents feel they have the proper intuition, this book gives you the strategic reasoning necessary for raising successful children.
SITR
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting Ideas About How to Raise Children to be Successful Adults
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2019
I read a lot of these books and this one is among the better ones. More anecdotal than true research but still very interesting. It uses Ivy League status as a measure of success so if that bothers you skip this book.
Yusuf Zahri
4.0 out of 5 stars A common sense, well provinanced book on parenting exceptional children
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2019
I received this book specifically to write a review of it, but I do my best to be honest and open in all my reviews.

(Please see the enclosed pictures.)

The premise of the book is that exceptionally performing adults start as children, and that if those children are raised with a certain set of parenting factors and roles fulfilled then it increases the chances that the child will become a high performing adult.

The book is notable both for what it says, and for the caveats. Both are well done. The book does not guarantee that if the steps are followed and the roles fulfilled that the child will be successful. As a parent and an academic, I appreciate the realistic framing.

Also, the book notes that this system seems to work across the divides in our intersectional world.

The book identifies eight roles that parents of successful children tend to take: early learning partner, flight engineer, fixer, revealer, philosopher, model, the negotiator, and the GPS.

The book first establishes the theory, the statistical techniques, and the evidence for the success of the Formula. In addition to scratching my researcher itch, the book makes a common sense, story based appeal to parents across the spectrum of backgrounds and inclinations.

Honestly, even if the book was not so well researched and compelling, the messages on how to parent are excellent and would be great to be applied for anyone trying to raise a child.

Both of the Reasonable Reviewer team spent considerable time as single parents, and we agree that this book would have been very useful as a guide for us. We will try to more fully follow the advice in the more limited role as grandparents.

The book goes into significant and useful detail on what each role comprises, and what its limits are.

Well done!

The one thing that could have rounded out the book was the motivation of the child.

The book, to its credit, mentions that parents (of successful adults) usually suffered some misfortune as child that motivated them to ensure their own children did not suffer in the same way.

That said, unless the child experiences some "badness" in his or her life then the child will not be motivated to pursue excellence either. Hidden in the stories in the book are examples of motivators for the children too, seeing violence on the streets, having people close to them struggling with addictions, ...

That last factor explains why so many children of very successful people are good, adequate, but not exceptional performers.

There is a generational lesson in all that. If our children do not experience some hardship, challenges, and failures early on in life then they will never reach for the stars and become all that they can be.

All in all though, this is an excellent book that is well structured, well thought out, and very applicable to anyone raising a child to be all that he or she can be.
Customer image
Yusuf Zahri
4.0 out of 5 stars A common sense, well provinanced book on parenting exceptional children
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2019
I received this book specifically to write a review of it, but I do my best to be honest and open in all my reviews.

(Please see the enclosed pictures.)

The premise of the book is that exceptionally performing adults start as children, and that if those children are raised with a certain set of parenting factors and roles fulfilled then it increases the chances that the child will become a high performing adult.

The book is notable both for what it says, and for the caveats. Both are well done. The book does not guarantee that if the steps are followed and the roles fulfilled that the child will be successful. As a parent and an academic, I appreciate the realistic framing.

Also, the book notes that this system seems to work across the divides in our intersectional world.

The book identifies eight roles that parents of successful children tend to take: early learning partner, flight engineer, fixer, revealer, philosopher, model, the negotiator, and the GPS.

The book first establishes the theory, the statistical techniques, and the evidence for the success of the Formula. In addition to scratching my researcher itch, the book makes a common sense, story based appeal to parents across the spectrum of backgrounds and inclinations.

Honestly, even if the book was not so well researched and compelling, the messages on how to parent are excellent and would be great to be applied for anyone trying to raise a child.

Both of the Reasonable Reviewer team spent considerable time as single parents, and we agree that this book would have been very useful as a guide for us. We will try to more fully follow the advice in the more limited role as grandparents.

The book goes into significant and useful detail on what each role comprises, and what its limits are.

Well done!

The one thing that could have rounded out the book was the motivation of the child.

The book, to its credit, mentions that parents (of successful adults) usually suffered some misfortune as child that motivated them to ensure their own children did not suffer in the same way.

That said, unless the child experiences some "badness" in his or her life then the child will not be motivated to pursue excellence either. Hidden in the stories in the book are examples of motivators for the children too, seeing violence on the streets, having people close to them struggling with addictions, ...

That last factor explains why so many children of very successful people are good, adequate, but not exceptional performers.

There is a generational lesson in all that. If our children do not experience some hardship, challenges, and failures early on in life then they will never reach for the stars and become all that they can be.

All in all though, this is an excellent book that is well structured, well thought out, and very applicable to anyone raising a child to be all that he or she can be.
Images in this review
Customer image Customer image Customer image
aufheben
5.0 out of 5 stars A lot of wonderful stories to illustrate the Formula
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2019
With each of the roles the author uses a lot of stories to illustrate how those roles work in parenting and how the children benefit from the actions of their parents.
An interesting reading based on solid ground.
Charles Moore
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for any parent
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2021
This book is an incredible resource for any parent looking to be more purposeful in the way they raise their child or children.

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