The lost art of education

What can we learn from our ancestors about education and teaching? Learn how the world's oldest cultures can help us raise happy, healthy children.

After giving birth to her daughter Rosy, PhD holder and bestselling author Michaeleen Doucleff realized that raising children was no easy task. But after visiting a Mayan village in the Yucatán Peninsula, Doucleff found the solution to her problems. Enchanted by the way the Mayans raised their children, she set off on a trip with three-year-old Rosy to explore other communities and explore their educational and parenting practices.

In The Lost Art of Parenting , the author recounts her experience visiting three of the world's oldest communities: the Maya in Mexico; the Inuit above the Arctic Circle; and the Hadza in Tanzania. During her stay, she observed the parenting strategies practiced by these families and realized that these cultures did not have the same problems as Western parents in raising children.

Unlike Western culture, Mayan, Inuit, and Hadza children are raised on cooperation rather than control, trust rather than fear, and individual needs rather than developmental milestones.

In The Lost Art of Parenting, you'll discover effective methods used by ancient cultures that can serve as models for raising happy children in contemporary society. Packed with practical lessons that parents can implement immediately, the book helps readers rethink how parents should relate to their children and reveals a universal parenting paradigm adapted to all families.

“The Lost Art of Parenting is full of clever ideas that I immediately wanted to apply to raising my own children.” - Pamela Druckerman, The New York Times Book Review

“A profound research [...]. Doucleff is careful to portray his subjects not as curiosities 'frozen in time,' but rather as families who have clung to invaluable child-rearing techniques that likely date back tens of thousands of years.” - The Atlantic