children\'s studies

The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: The 25 Year Landmark Study

During the last 40 years, our society's views on how families are created and how they operate has undergone a tremendous shift. In The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce, authors Judith Wallerstein, Julia Lewis, and Sandra Blakeslee have assembled a variety of stories from people of different ages and life stages. Some are children of divorce, some are from families that stayed unhappily intact, but all of them offer valuable information important to all of us as parents, children, and members of society at large. Separate chapters focus on the different roles children take on in the event of a divorce or unhappy marriage, ranging from positive role model to deeply troubled adolescent. In many cases, the people interviewed continue to define themselves as children of divorce up to 30 years after the occurrence; this is described by one subject as "sort of a permanent identity, like being adopted or something."

Both encouraging and thought-provoking, the final chapter questions how we maintain the freedom made possible by divorce while, at the same time, minimizing the damage. The authors' response to this question begins with pragmatic suggestions about strengthening marriage--not bland "family values" rhetoric but practical how-to ideas combined with national policy initiatives that have been making the rounds for years. With fascinating stories and statistics, Wasserstein, Lewis, and Blakeslee have illuminated the improvements within reach while our society experiences these massive changes in it's most fundamental relationships. --Jill Lightner

During the last 40 years, our society's views on how families arecreated and how they operate has undergone a tremendous shift. In TheUnexpected Legacy of Divorce, authors Judith Wallerstein, Julia Lewis, andSandra Blakeslee have assembled a variety of stories from people of differentages and life stages. Some are children of divorce, some are from families thatstayed unhappily intact, but all of them offer valuable information important toall of us as parents, children, and members of society at large. Separatechapters focus on the different roles children take on in the event of a divorceor unhappy marriage, ranging from positive role model to deeply troubledadolescent. In many cases, the people interviewed continue to define themselvesas children of divorce up to 30 years after the occurrence; this is described byone subject as "sort of a permanent identity, like being adopted orsomething."Both encouraging and thought-provoking, the final chapter questions how wemaintain the freedom made possible by divorce while, at the same time,minimizing the damage. The authors' response to this question begins withpragmatic suggestions about strengthening marriage--not bland "family values"rhetoric but practical how-to ideas combined with national policy initiativesthat have been making the rounds for years. With fascinating stories andstatistics, Wasserstein, Lewis, and Blakeslee have illuminated the improvementswithin reach while our society experiences these massive changes in it's mostfundamental relationships. --Jill Lightner

Twenty-five years ago, Judith Wallerstein began talking to a group of 131 children whose parents were all going through a divorce. From those conversations have come two bestsellers: Surviving the Breakup and Second Chances. Now the third volume of this longitudinal study, The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce brings all of her research up to the present and shows for the first time how children are affected by divorce long into adulthood. Using a comparison group of adults who grew up in the same communities but whose parents never divorced, Wallerstein shows how adult children of divorce essentially view life differently from their peers in intact homes, and also sheds light on the question that so many parents confront—whether to stay unhappily married or to divorce. This book is a landmark cultural event that will change the way all of us view divorce.

Teaching Students Who Are Exceptional, Diverse, and at Risk in the General Education Classroom (4th Edition)

Based on the belief that even small accommodations make a difference in the success of students with disabilities, this text provides readers with the knowledge, tools, and practical strategies that will empower them to spark learning in every student including students with disabilities, culturally diverse students, students with limited English proficiency, economically disadvantaged students, and other students at risk. Revised to reflect recent changes in the law and current terminology, the strength of the book continues to be its numerous learning activities and sample lessons addressing both elementary and secondary classrooms, as well as its four chapter unit on curriculum adaptations with specific strategies and activities for teaching reading, writing, mathematics, and content areas. The strong emphasis on professional planning and collaboration make it an excellent resource for all teachers. Designed for anyone interested in inclusion/mainstreaming, teaching students with disabilities in the regular classroom, and teaching exceptional learners.

The Disappearance of Childhood

Subtractive Schooling: U.S. Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring

Subtractive Schooling provides a framework for understanding the patterns of immigrant achievement and U.S.-born underachievement frequently noted in the literature and observed by the author in her ethnographic account of regular-track youth attending a comprehensive, virtually all-Mexican, inner-city high school in Houston. Valenzuela argues that schools subtract resources from youth in two major ways: firstly by dismissing their definition of education and secondly, through assimilationist policies and practices that minimize their culture and language. A key consequence is the erosion of students' social capital evident in the absence of academically-oriented networks among acculturated, U.S.-born youth.

Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind (P.S.)

After enduring years of hunger, deprivation, and devastating loss at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, ten-year-old Loung Ung became the "lucky child," the sibling chosen to accompany her eldest brother to America while her one surviving sister and two brothers remained behind. In this poignant and elegiac memoir, Loung recalls her assimilation into an unfamiliar new culture while struggling to overcome dogged memories of violence and the deep scars of war. In alternating chapters, she gives voice to Chou, the beloved older sister whose life in war-torn Cambodia so easily could have been hers. Highlighting the harsh realities of chance and circumstance in times of war as well as in times of peace, Lucky Child is ultimately a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and to the salvaging strength of family bonds.

One Day the Soldiers Came: Voices of Children in War (P.S.)

Today, in violence-torn regions across the globe, 20 million children have been uprooted, orphaned, or injured by war, famine, and poverty. This is their story . . . and ours.

In this powerful and unforgettable book—by turns painful, funny, terrifying, and triumphant—Charles London takes us into the world of refugee children, celebrating their unique skills for survival and reflection. Their remarkable stories and drawings chill the blood and touch the heart, offering an indelible, first hand portrait of the war that rages beyond the headlines.

The Children

Like the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the civil rights movement has achieved mythical status in America--an epic tale of heroes and martyrs; of sacrifice, honor, and courage in the face of overwhelming odds; of ideals worth dying for in a time and place where death was an all-too-real possibility. In The Children, prize-winning journalist and author David Halberstam goes back in time to the beginnings of the civil rights movement in Nashville, Tennessee, tracing both the lives of the individuals who initiated it and the growth of the movement itself into its present-day status.

Every epic must have its hero, and The Children has James Lawson, a young, African American divinity student whose tactics in civil disobedience were learned at the knees of Mahatma Gandhi's followers during a three-year stint as a missionary to India. When he returned to the States and was accepted into the all-white Vanderbilt Divinity School, Lawson began teaching workshops to Nashville's African American youth designed to equip them for the equal-rights struggle, a battle Lawson believed could be won only with nonviolent tactics. Halberstam chronicles the fight against racism with the insight that comes from witnessing it first-hand. As a young journalist for the Tennessean in Nashville, he covered the rise of the civil rights movement, and in The Children he draws on many of his writings from the era. From accounts of lunch-counter sit-ins to the freedom rides, Halberstam's book covers the map of the crusade for racial equality, serving as a poignant reminder that heroes come in all ages, colors, and characters.

A remarkable true story of heroism, courage, and faith

A Bordo: Glencoe Spanish 2

Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood

Like Huck's raft, the experience of American childhood has been both adventurous and terrifying. For more than three centuries, adults have agonized over raising children while children have followed their own paths to development and expression. Now, Steven Mintz gives us the first comprehensive history of American childhood encompassing both the child's and the adult's tumultuous early years of life.

Underscoring diversity through time and across regions, Mintz traces the transformation of children from the sinful creatures perceived by Puritans to the productive workers of nineteenth-century farms and factories, from the cosseted cherubs of the Victorian era to the confident consumers of our own. He explores their role in revolutionary upheaval, westward expansion, industrial growth, wartime mobilization, and the modern welfare state. Revealing the harsh realities of children's lives through history--the rigors of physical labor, the fear of chronic ailments, the heartbreak of premature death--he also acknowledges the freedom children once possessed to discover their world as well as themselves.

Whether at work or play, at home or school, the transition from childhood to adulthood has required generations of Americans to tackle tremendously difficult challenges. Today, adults impose ever-increasing demands on the young for self-discipline, cognitive development, and academic achievement, even as the influence of the mass media and consumer culture has grown. With a nod to the past, Mintz revisits an alternative to the goal-driven realities of contemporary childhood. An odyssey of psychological self-discovery and growth, this book suggests a vision of childhood that embraces risk and freedom--like the daring adventure on Huck's raft.

Family Child Care Contracts and Policies, Third Edition: How to Be Businesslike in a Caring Profession (Redleaf Press Business Series)

The completely revised and expanded version of this best-selling business classic gives home-based child care providers the most updated tools needed to establish and enforce contracts and policies, build trust between provider and parent, and demonstrate provider professionalism. This new edition includes a CD-ROM with customizable worksheets and forms for creating a policy handbook and contracts designed specifically for your business.