Parents Under Siege

A compassionate and practical guide for parents facing the difficult task of raising children in an increasingly violent world. This intelligent, parent-centered reference takes a sympathetic yet tough-minded look at the forces that are shaping--and disrupting--American family life today.

Computer game designers craft techniques to titillate children with sex and violence, while social media developers infiltrate and shape children's social and emotional worlds to compel them to spend more and more monetizable time online. America's schools are being transformed into profit centers while children are subjected to increasingly regimented teaching that thwarts curiosity and creativity, numbing the joy of learning. And children's chronic health problems, from asthma to cancer, autism, and birth defects, steadily escalate as thousands of new industrial chemicals are dumped into their environments. Nelson Mandela once sagely remarked that "there can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way it treats its children." The problem today, as Joel Bakan reveals, is that business interests have made protecting children extremely difficult.

Noted clinical psychologist Robert Firestone and his co-authors explore the struggle that all of us face in striving to retain a sense of ourselves as unique individuals.

This edited volume analyses siege warfare as a discrete type of military engagement, in the face of which civilians are particularly vulnerable. Siege warfare is a form of combat that has usually had devastating effects on civilian populations. From the near-contemporary Siege of Sarajevo to the real and mythical sieges of the ancient Mediterranean, this has been a recurring type of military engagement which, through bombardment, starvation, disease and massacre, places non-combatants at the heart of battle. To date, however, there has been little recognition of the effects of siege warfare on civilians. This edited volume addresses this gap. Using a distinctive regressive method, it begins with the present and works backwards, avoiding teleological interpretations that suggest the targeting of civilians in war is a modern phenomenon. Its contributors interrogate civilians’ roles during sieges, both as victims and active participants; the laws and customs of siege warfare; its place in historical memory, and the ways civilian survivors have dealt with trauma. Its scope and content ensure that the collection is essential reading for all those interested in the place of civilians in war. Chapter 2 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com

At a time when education is considered crucial to a country’s economic success, recent UK governments have insisted their reforms are the only way to make England’s system world class. Yet pupils are tested rather than educated, teachers bullied rather than trusted and parents cast as winners or losers in a gamble for school places. Education under siege considers the English education system as it is and as it might be. In a highly accessible style, Peter Mortimore, an author with wide experience of the education sector, both in the UK and abroad, identifies the current system’s strengths and weaknesses. He concludes that England has some of the best teachers in the world but one of the most muddled systems. Challenging the government’s view that there is no alternative, he proposes radical changes to help all schools become good schools. They include a system of schools receiving a fair balance of pupils who learn easily and those who do not, ensuring a more even spread of effective teachers, as well as banning league tables, outlawing selection, opening up faith schools and integrating private schools into the state system. In the final chapter, he asks readers who share his concerns to demand that the politicians alter course. The book will appeal to parents, education students and teachers, as well as everyone interested in the future education of our children.

Corporations have found a new resource to be mined for profit: our children. In this shocking and indelible behind-the-scenes journey, Joel Bakan, acclaimed author and award-winning maker of the renowned film and international bestselling book The Corporation, uncovers the astonishing degree to which companies exploit the special vulnerabilities of children, manipulate parents’ fears, and operate with callous disregard for children’s health and well-being. The number of children taking dangerous psychotropic drugs has skyrocketed as pharmaceutical companies employ insidious, often illegal tactics to inflate diagnoses of disorders and convince parents their children require medication. A highly sophisticated marketing industry deploys increasingly subtle and powerful tactics to play on children’s intense emotions and desires and to lure them into obsessive consumerism. Computer game designers craft techniques to titillate children with sex and violence, while social media developers infiltrate and shape children’s social and emotional worlds to compel them to spend more and more monetizable time online. America’s schools are being transformed into profit centers while children are subjected to increasingly regimented teaching that thwarts curiosity and creativity, numbing the joy of learning. And children’s chronic health problems, from asthma to cancer, autism, and birth defects, steadily escalate as thousands of new industrial chemicals are dumped into their environments. Nelson Mandela once sagely remarked that “there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children.” The problem today, as Joel Bakan reveals, is that business interests have made protecting children extremely difficult. Corporations pump billions into rendering parents and governments powerless to shield children from an unrelenting commercial assault, with the result that after a century of progress, during which protective laws and regulations were widely promulgated, children are once again exposed to substantial harms at the hands of economic actors. Childhood Under Siege leaves no room for doubt that this assault on childhood is a major crisis of our time. A powerful manifesto for urgent change, it empowers us to shield our own children while offering concrete and realistic proposals for legal reforms that would protect all children from these predatory practices.

Charlie and Marcy Boxford are two normal teenage kids. Their parents are David and Louise Boxford. Although the two siblings have grown up in a Christian Household their whole lives, their household is anything but Godly. Marcy's constant rebelliousness and Charlie's anti-socialism push the family to its breaking point. However, a tragic event will ironically be the thing that brings them back together. But just as the kids seem to get along with their parents better, David and Louise Boxford are kidnapped by a mysterious group of people. When the cops can't turn up anything, the duo head off to find their parents, accompanied by Ali Hussein, a deacon from the Baptist Church. Facing death and trials at every turn, the trio eventually comes face to face with a shocking evil, one that threatens not only their own family, but their faith as well Bio My name is Steven Richard Campagna. I live in Medford, New Jersey and attend Shawnee High School. I've always had a big love for books. I got this love from my first mother. Sadly, she passed away in January of 2018. I often questioned God's love until I realized that I needed to change, and not him. Throughout my life I've learned that God's ways are higher than ours. I have a desire to share that truth through ooks. I hope you enjoy reading the things I write. But also remember something: God's the true author. I'm just the tool he's using to write the books that you read. God Bless and enjoy!

A single mother and a special ops captain are united by revenge in the New York Times–bestselling author’s military romance series debut. Eva Dolce would stop at nothing to save her son—even if it takes murdering Hector Cruz, the most fearsome man in San Marquez. But she can’t do it alone. Enter special ops captain Robert Tate, a man who’s seen too much. Ruthless and taciturn, Tate couldn’t be more different from Eva. But they have one thing in common: revenge. Tate saw his brother die by Cruz’s hand. And if Eva is his only way to Hector, then so be it. But the combustible chemistry sizzling between them is even more dangerous than their formidable enemies. And Eva’s face, beautiful as it is, masks the truth about her past and her child. Can Tate forgive her lies . . . or will her secrets leave them both dead?