Raising America

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, millions of anxious parents have turned to child-rearing manuals for reassurance. Instead, however, they have often found yet more cause for worry. In this rich social history, Ann Hulbert analyzes one hundred years of shifting trends in advice and discovers an ongoing battle between two main approaches: a “child-centered” focus on warmly encouraging development versus a sterner “parent-centered” emphasis on instilling discipline. She examines how pediatrics, psychology, and neuroscience have fueled the debates but failed to offer definitive answers. And she delves into the highly relevant and often turbulent personal lives of the popular advice-givers, from L. Emmett Holt and Arnold Gesell to Bruno Bettelheim and Benjamin Spock to the prominent (and ever conflicting) experts of today.

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, millions of anxious parents have turned to child-rearing manuals for reassurance. Instead, however, they have often found yet more cause for worry. In this rich social history, Ann Hulbert analyzes one hundred years of shifting trends in advice and discovers an ongoing battle between two main approaches: a “child-centered” focus on warmly encouraging development versus a sterner “parent-centered” emphasis on instilling discipline. She examines how pediatrics, psychology, and neuroscience have fueled the debates but failed to offer definitive answers. And she delves into the highly relevant and often turbulent personal lives of the popular advice-givers, from L. Emmett Holt and Arnold Gesell to Bruno Bettelheim and Benjamin Spock to the prominent (and ever conflicting) experts of today.

A “deeply reported, deeply moving” (Patrick Radden Keefe) account of everyday heroes fighting on the front lines of the overdose crisis, from the New York Times bestselling author of Dopesick (inspiration for the Peabody Award-winning Hulu limited series) and Factory Man. Nearly a decade into the second wave of America's overdose crisis, pharmaceutical companies have yet to answer for the harms they created. As pending court battles against opioid makers, distributors, and retailers drag on, addiction rates have soared to record-breaking levels during the COVID pandemic, illustrating the critical need for leadership, urgency, and change. Meanwhile, there is scant consensus between law enforcement and medical leaders, nor an understanding of how to truly scale the programs that are out there, working at the ragged edge of capacity and actually saving lives. Distilling this massive, unprecedented national health crisis down to its character-driven emotional core as only she can, Beth Macy takes us into the country’s hardest hit places to witness the devastating personal costs that one-third of America's families are now being forced to shoulder. Here we meet the ordinary people fighting for the least of us with the fewest resources, from harm reductionists risking arrest to bring lifesaving care to the homeless and addicted to the activists and bereaved families pushing to hold Purdue and the Sackler family accountable. These heroes come from all walks of life; what they have in common is an up-close and personal understanding of addiction that refuses to stigmatize—and therefore abandon—people who use drugs, as big pharma execs and many politicians are all too ready to do. Like the treatment innovators she profiles, Beth Macy meets the opioid crisis where it is—not where we think it should be or wish it was. Bearing witness with clear eyes, intrepid curiosity, and unfailing empathy, she brings us the crucial next installment in the story of the defining disaster of our era, one that touches every single one of us, whether directly or indirectly. A complex story of public health, big pharma, dark money, politics, race, and class that is by turns harrowing and heartening, infuriating and inspiring, Raising Lazarus is a must-read for all Americans.

Like other African-born immigrants, I came to the shores of America from Nigeria, West Africa, some twenty-plus years ago as a young adult, freshly married to my Nigerian immigrant spouse. All we knew was what we learnt from our parents and community, growing up. Except for what we read in books about the outside world, we had no idea what lay ahead surviving in another environment outside our Third World. Our parents had sent us forth to study some more in an environment different from what we were used to, in so many ways. We had to make success of this opportunity that was costing them so much. Immigrant Nigerians coming to America are then faced with questions of how to raise their children. Should their offsprings be raised as Nigerians, Americans or to help them benefit from both worlds, as Nigerian-Americans? Who decides, the parents, the children or the society? What will be the fate of the next generation to come?

Understanding what and how students learn has emerged as a salient issue in Latin America, a region where the majority of children now have access to schools but few students learn the skills they need to succeed. 'Raising Student Learning in Latin America' examines recent advances in our understanding of the policies and programs that affect student learning and provides policy makers with effective options. This volume relies on indicators from national and international assessments of subject matter knowledge plus intermediate learning indicators, such as dropout and completion rates. The first part focuses on the central role of student learning in education. The second part reviews the evidence on factors and policies that affect student learning. The final part addresses policy optons on education quality assurance.

First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Modern family life raises tough questions: Who should be responsible for children's daily care? How can their financial support be fairly allocated between parents? Should extended family members be paid for their help? Can women have full careers and also be good mothers? In Raising Children, leading scholars take on these questions and more in order to critically assess policy responses to the changing needs of the modern family. As parents struggle to balance professional and personal demands, choose schools for their children, and sort through constantly updated medical and psychological information, they need help from public officials who can make policies that realistically address childrearing's contemporary challenges. The insightful contributions in this volume provide an excellent starting point for understanding these thorny, multifaceted issues, skillfully framing the influences on child development, such as altered family dynamics, major life changes like immigration, and the role of schools and government in children's health. Adoption by same-sex couples, difficulties for immigrant children, the ADHD diagnosis controversy, and public intervention for at-risk children are only a few of the topics covered. With society in a constant state of flux, it is critically important that we assess our family and child policies to ensure that they provide families with the assistance they need. Drawing on the rich interdisciplinary work of the Berkeley Center for Child and Youth Policy, this is an eye-opening look at some of the biggest issues facing the family today, which are as complex as they are vital to address in a thoughtful way.

The 20th century, declared at its start to be the “Century of the Child” by Swedish author Ellen Key, saw an unprecedented expansion of state activity in and expert knowledge on child-rearing on both sides of the Atlantic. Children were seen as a crucial national resource whose care could not be left to families alone. However, the exact scope and degree of state intervention and expert influence as well as the rights and roles of mothers and fathers remained subjects of heated debates throughout the century. While there is a growing scholarly interest in the history of childhood, research in the field remains focused on national narratives. This volume compares the impact of state intervention and expert influence on theories and practices of raising children in the U.S. and German Central Europe. In particular, the contributors focus on institutions such as kindergartens and schools where the private and the public spheres intersected, on notions of “race” and “ethnicity,” “normality” and “deviance,” and on the impact of wars and changes in political regimes.