Cornelius N. Grove

After attaining a Master of Arts in Teaching degree at Johns Hopkins University in 1964, Cornelius Grove taught high school history, worked in educational publishing, traveled extensively in Europe and Africa, and completed a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree at Columbia University in 1979.

He served for 11 years as Director of Research for AFS, the student exchange organization, and simultaneously held adjunct posts at Columbia and New School Universities. In 1986, he taught at Beijing Foreign Studies University, after which he and a Chinese scholar co-authored "Encountering the Chinese."

In 1990, Cornelius founded Grovewell LLC and, with partner Willa Hallowell, built it into a global leadership consultancy for major corporations. Grovewell closed at the end of 2020, after 31 years.

Cornelius writes non-fiction cross-cultural books of interest to U.S. parents and early childhood educators.

In “The Aptitude Myth,” Cornelius shows that Americans’ beliefs about children’s learning originated in the imaginations of ancient Greek philosophers. He traces the path of those beliefs into 20th century America. Two beliefs stand out: One is that children are born with fixed mental abilities. The other is that children, especially girls, are damaged by intense study. www.theaptitudemyth.info.

“The Drive to Learn” is the first of two books that compare American children's learning with that of their East Asian peers. This book reveals that East Asian children have an inner drive to learn that helps to account for their superior classroom performance. The values by which they've been raised at home explains why. www.thedrivetolearn.info.

"A Mirror for Americans" continues Cornelius's comparison of American and East Asian children's learning. This book examines the values and practices of East Asian preschool and primary school classrooms. Compared with U.S. classrooms, those in East Asia are not student-centered but rather knowledge-centered. www.amirrorforamericans.info.

Just published is "How Other Children Learn," which explores parenting and children's learning in five traditional societies: Aka hunter-gatherers in Africa, Quechua highlanders in Peru, Navajos in the U.S. Southwest, Arab villagers in the Levant, and Hindu villagers in India. Their differences with middle-class American child-rearing are many and significant. www.howotherchildrenlearn.info.