Nursery World - Positive Relationships: Behaviour

A snippet of Nursery World history and years of sound advice to parents are revealed in a new book about Susan Isaacs

As the saying goes, ‘some things never change’, and Wise Words: How Susan Isaacs Changed Parenting reveals how the same patterns of child behaviour have perplexed parents for generations. The parenting advice too will appear reassuringly familiar to readers today, but for its time it was seen as radical, both in its content and style of writing.

Isaacs was an eminent psychoanalyst and educationalist, yet her pioneering of both play-based education and child-sensitive approaches to parenting goes largely unrecognised today. Wise Words, by psychoanalyst and Nursery World contributor Caroline Vollans, will do much to resurrect Isaacs’ reputation.

The book is a collection of Isaacs’ agony aunt columns, which she wrote for The Nursery World from 1929 to 1936 under the pseudonym Ursula Wise. In the columns, Isaacs’ writing is innovative for its calm, thoughtful and empathetic style, while her parenting advice is centred on child development and the need to be sensitive to the child’s feelings and emotions.

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included