The Private Life of the American Teenager

Public Spaces, Private Lives

Democracy Beyond 9/11

Henry A. Giroux

While many of the essays in this book were written before 9/11, they point to a number of important issues such as the commercialization of public life, the stepped up militarization, racial profiling, and the threat to basic civil liberties that have been resurrected since the terrorist attacks. Public Spaces, Private Lives serves to legitimate the claim that there is much in America that has not changed since 9/11. Rather than a dramatic change, what we are witnessing is an intensification and acceleration of the contradictions that threatened American democracy before the tragic events of 9/11. Hence, Public Spaces, Private Lives offers a context for both understanding and critically engaging the combined threats posed by the increase in domestic militarization and a neoliberal ideology that substitutes market values for those democratic values that are crucial to rethinking what a vibrant democracy would look like in the aftermath of September 11th.

Sex Guides

Books and Films about Sexuality for Young Adults

Patty Campbell

The history of the sex guide for adolescents documents the quite unconscious movement of Western culture’s ideas about sex and youth, revealing the heritage of our own sexual beliefs and codes of behaviour. The first section of this book, first published in 1986, traces the development of the sex guide, examining 400 books from 1892 to the 1980s. The second section comprises a detailed analysis of the patterns, content and usefulness of all the contemporary manifestations of the genre. The history of the teen sex manual is a fascinating revelation of American attitudes towards adolescent sexuality.

Imperfect Control

Our Lifelong Struggles With Power and Surrender

Judith Viorst

In her remarkable national bestseller, Necessary Losses, Judith Viorst explored how we are shaped by the various losses we experience throughout our lives. Now, in her wise and perceptive new book, Imperfect Control, she shows us how our sense of self and all our important relationships are colored by our struggles over control: over wanting it and taking it, loving it and fearing it, and figuring out when the time has come to surrender it. Writing with compassion, acute psychological insight, and a touch of her trademark humor, Viorst invites us to contemplate the limits and possibilities of our control. She shows us how our lives can be shaped by our actions and our choices. She reminds us, too, that we sometimes should choose to let go. And she encourages us to find our own best balance between power and surrender.

Soul Searching : The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers

The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers

Christian Smith Dr William R Kenan Jr Professor of Sociology University of Notre Dame, Candidate University of North Carolina Melina Lundquist Denton Ph.D, Chapel Hill USA

In innumerable discussions and activities dedicated to better understanding and helping teenagers, one aspect of teenage life is curiously overlooked. Very few such efforts pay serious attention to the role of religion and spirituality in the lives of American adolescents. But many teenagers are very involved in religion. Surveys reveal that 35% attend religious services weekly and another 15% attend at least monthly. 60% say that religious faith is important in their lives. 40% report that they pray daily. 25% say that they have been "born again." Teenagers feel good about the congregations they belong to. Some say that faith provides them with guidance and resources for knowing how to live well. What is going on in the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers? What do they actually believe? What religious practices do they engage in? Do they expect to remain loyal to the faith of their parents? Or are they abandoning traditional religious institutions in search of a new, more authentic "spirituality"? This book attempts to answer these and related questions as definitively as possible. It reports the findings of The National Study of Youth and Religion, the largest and most detailed such study ever undertaken. The NYSR conducted a nationwide telephone survey of teens and significant caregivers, as well as nearly 300 in-depth face-to-face interviews with a sample of the population that was surveyed. The results show that religion and spirituality are indeed very significant in the lives of many American teenagers. Among many other discoveries, they find that teenagers are far more influenced by the religious beliefs and practices of their parents and caregivers than commonly thought. They refute the conventional wisdom that teens are "spiritual but not religious." And they confirm that greater religiosity is significantly associated with more positive adolescent life outcomes. This eagerly-awaited volume not only provides an unprecedented understanding of adolescent religion and spirituality but, because teenagers serve as bellwethers for possible future trends, it affords an important and distinctive window through which to observe and assess the current state and future direction of American religion as a whole.

Teaching-The Imperiled Profession

Daniel L. Duke

What is it really like to be a teacher today? Teaching—The Imperiled Profession goes beyond conventional analyses, to probe the profession and various threats to its viability. Daniel L. Duke has drawn on his own and current educational research—including surveys of teacher opinion, interviews with teachers, and press coverage of educational issues—to uncover and examine a complex array of factors that contribute to the troubled state of the profession and the unprecedented discouragement of its practitioners. The book also analyzes traditional sources of support. Teaching—The Imperiled Profession provides prospective teachers with a realistic picture of the profession today. It identifies a set of concerns on which citizens might reasonably focus attention, in order to forestall any future deterioration. It provides the educator, administrator, and policy-maker with a comprehensive set of recommendations for revitalizing the profession. The book also serves as a concise history of the teaching profession as it has developed in the United States during the twentieth century.

The Teenage Zone

John C. Souter

Written in a user-friendly, conversational manner, this "survival guide" for parents of teenagers offers practical suggestions to improve and build parent-teen relationships. Chapters deal with such pertinent topics as peer pressure, discipline, trust, character building, dealing with broken family situations, and more.