Druid Magazine

A New York Times bestseller and “a passionate, urgent” (The New Yorker) examination of the growing inequality gap from the bestselling author of Bowling Alone: why fewer Americans today have the opportunity for upward mobility. Central to the very idea of America is the principle that we are a nation of opportunity. But over the last quarter century we have seen a disturbing “opportunity gap” emerge. We Americans have always believed that those who have talent and try hard will succeed, but this central tenet of the American Dream seems no longer true or at the least, much less true than it was. In Our Kids, Robert Putnam offers a personal and authoritative look at this new American crisis, beginning with the example of his high school class of 1959 in Port Clinton, Ohio. The vast majority of those students went on to lives better than those of their parents. But their children and grandchildren have faced diminishing prospects. Putnam tells the tale of lessening opportunity through poignant life stories of rich, middle class, and poor kids from cities and suburbs across the country, brilliantly blended with the latest social-science research. “A truly masterful volume” (Financial Times), Our Kids provides a disturbing account of the American dream that is “thoughtful and persuasive” (The Economist). Our Kids offers a rare combination of individual testimony and rigorous evidence: “No one can finish this book and feel complacent about equal opportunity” (The New York Times Book Review).

Our public schools are in danger of collapse, and if they do, we will all pay the price Healthy public schools are essential for a healthy economy and creating informed citizens. But we are neglecting our schools in a perversely malicious way: making impossible demands on them, strangling them financially, creating trivial changes for the sake of ideology, avoiding necessary changes, and just plain ignoring them. In this forcefully argued and convincing book, education expert Charles Ungerleider makes our situation plain. Canadians have never placed a higher value on education, but if we do not do something about public schools now, we may lose the benefits that they provide and miss the opportunity to fix them. Drawing on the latest research and using examples from across the country, Ungerleider describes what's right and what's wrong about our public schools system and provides solutions for making them a lot better. He looks at the conflict between “traditional” and “progressive” approaches to education. He argues that the public school curriculum has become bloated, fragmented, and mired in trivia. He examines the effects of the changing family and the influence on children of television, the Internet, video games, and their peers. He discusses the work of teachers and teachers' unions, the changes in public school finance and governance, and the issue of accountability. And he takes on the issue of school choice and competition, where, more than anywhere else, rhetoric prevails over reason. From the Hardcover edition.

Here is a fresh look at the age-old role of parenting.Loving Our Kids on Purpose brings the principles of the Kingdom of God and revival into our strategy as parents. 2 Corinthians 3:17 tells us that Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. Most parenting approaches train children to learn to accept being controlled by well meaning parents and adults. Unfortunately, God is not going to control us as we gain independence from our parents.We must learn to control ourselves.This book will teach parents to train their children to manage their freedoms and protect their important heart to heart relationships.

Offers an expose of American public education, charging that faddish educational theories and the drive to inflate students' self-esteem are causing standards to decline

The author of The Explosive Child counsels parents and educators on how to best safeguard the interests of children with behavioral, emotional, and social challenges, in a guide that identifies the misunderstandings and practices that are contributing to a growing number of challenged student failures. 60,000 first printing.

Profiles ten children around the world, from the United States to Yemen, who have taken on the role of social activist.

A retired lieutenant colonel and the founder of the Parent Coaching institute join forces to make the case that violence in media and games conditions children to take it for granted as an acceptable part of life and trains them to be successful instigators of violence. Original.

A Book For Everyone Who Cares About ChildrenThe CrisisThe problem of overweight children has reached an epidemic level- More than 30% of American children are overweight; at least 15% are obese- Due to poor nutrition and lack of exercise, millions more are at risk- According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, "Overweight is now the most common medical condition of childhood"- The physical, psychological, and economic consequences of this epidemic are staggeringThe SolutionThis informative, motivational, and practical book reveals:- How to objectively assess a child?s weight- The 10 leading causes of overweight children- The consequences of poor nutrition and sedentary lifestyles- The myths and facts about nutrition, exercise, and weight loss- A step-by-step plan for helping children develop lifelong habits of good nutrition and physical fitnessOffered as a motivational and practical guidebook, We're Killing Our Kids enable parents, grandparents, educators, and other concerned adults to help children develop lifelong habits of healthy eating and physical fitness.

"Tony Wagner and venture capitalist Ted Dintersmith call for a complete overhaul of the function and focus of American schools, sharing insights and stories from the front lines, including profiles of successful students, teachers, parents, and business leaders. [The book proposes] a new vision of American education, one that puts wonder, creativity, and initiative at the very heart of the learning process and prepares students for today's economy"--

A psychologist with a reputation for penetrating to the heart of complex parenting issues joins forces with a physician and bestselling author to tackle one of the most disturbing and misunderstood trends of our time -- peers replacing parents in the lives of our children. Dr. Neufeld has dubbed this phenomenon peer orientation, which refers to the tendency of children and youth to look to their peers for direction: for a sense of right and wrong, for values, identity and codes of behaviour. But peer orientation undermines family cohesion, poisons the school atmosphere, and fosters an aggressively hostile and sexualized youth culture. It provides a powerful explanation for schoolyard bullying and youth violence; its effects are painfully evident in the context of teenage gangs and criminal activity, in tragedies such as in Littleton, Colorado; Tabor, Alberta and Victoria, B.C. It is an escalating trend that has never been adequately described or contested until Hold On to Your Kids. Once understood, it becomes self-evident -- as do the solutions. Hold On to Your Kids will restore parenting to its natural intuitive basis and the parent-child relationship to its rightful preeminence. The concepts, principles and practical advice contained in Hold On to Your Kids will empower parents to satisfy their children’s inborn need to find direction by turning towards a source of authority, contact and warmth. Something has changed. One can sense it, one can feel it, just not find the words for it. Children are not quite the same as we remember being. They seem less likely to take their cues from adults, less inclined to please those in charge, less afraid of getting into trouble. Parenting, too, seems to have changed. Our parents seemed more confident, more certain of themselves and had more impact on us, for better or for worse. For many, parenting does not feel natural. Adults through the ages have complained about children being less respectful of their elders and more difficult to manage than preceding generations, but could it be that this time it is for real? -- from Hold On to Your Kids