New York youth worker, Jeremy Del Rio - who heads up the New York-based Urban Youth Worker Coalition, just published a great article on social justice - aimed at youth workers.
Check it out: Jesus Justice: So Easy a Five Year-Old Can Do It
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Generation Me - Study Guide
A couple of weeks ago, I put together a study guide for Jean Twenge's book, Generation Me. As a youth worker, I have found her insights to be perceptive and informative. I would recommend that every youth worker and person involved in ministry with American youth and young adults go to their local bookshop and pick up a copy. It should be a standard text!Here are links to my chapter summaries, questions and reference links:
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
The Salvation Army's Position Statement on Poverty and Economic Justice
Below you will find The Salvation Army's public "position statement" on the subject of poverty and economic justice. I sensed it important to post this as some of my previous posts have been focusing upon childhood poverty in the U.S.A.
This quest to understand poverty in America emerged after I was deeply disturbed with a report from UNICEF that was shared with me a by a friend, Dr. Lynell Johnson earlier this year (An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries). In the report, America was voted the second worst country in an assessment of the lives and well-being of children and adolescents in economically advanced nations.
This reality has been haunting me for months. This is one of the major reasons why I am so glad that I do not only have the opportunity to respond as an individual, but that I am part of an organization that has chosen to make at the center of its' mission to be motivated by the love of God to care for the poor and the marginalized.
"What is a position statement?", you ask...
"Position Statements briefly set out the views of The Salvation Army on moral or social issues of current relevance. The statements articulate the gospel values and principles on which the Army takes its stand." (The Salvation Army, USA Eastern Territory's website)
Here is the statement:
Poverty & Economic Justice
The measure of any society is how well it cares for its weakest citizens. The persistence both of widespread poverty and indifference to that poverty is morally unacceptable. Jesus Christ motivates us to love our neighbor in practical ways. Our response to the poor is a measure of our obedience to and love for God.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ should free us from the enticements of consumerism and desire for individualistic gain. As Salvationists, we remain committed to The Salvation Army's historic mission to care for the poor and marginalized. Therefore, individually and corporately, we will work to eliminate poverty by:- Providing empowering practical assistance to poor people in our personal, family, and vocational lives, and in our congregational and organizational practices-through prayer, listening and dedication of our time and resources.- Making relational and financial choices that promote economic opportunity and justice for those in poverty.-
Evaluating public policies by how they respond to people who are poor.- Challenging racism and other attitudes that promote inequality and seeking reconciliation and harmony among all groups in our society.- Building community capacity, nurturing the bonds of family and community, and protecting the dignity of each person.- Partnering with other agencies in common commitment and action to overcome poverty in our own communities, our nation, and our world.
This quest to understand poverty in America emerged after I was deeply disturbed with a report from UNICEF that was shared with me a by a friend, Dr. Lynell Johnson earlier this year (An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries). In the report, America was voted the second worst country in an assessment of the lives and well-being of children and adolescents in economically advanced nations.
This reality has been haunting me for months. This is one of the major reasons why I am so glad that I do not only have the opportunity to respond as an individual, but that I am part of an organization that has chosen to make at the center of its' mission to be motivated by the love of God to care for the poor and the marginalized.
"What is a position statement?", you ask...
"Position Statements briefly set out the views of The Salvation Army on moral or social issues of current relevance. The statements articulate the gospel values and principles on which the Army takes its stand." (The Salvation Army, USA Eastern Territory's website)
Here is the statement:
Poverty & Economic Justice
The measure of any society is how well it cares for its weakest citizens. The persistence both of widespread poverty and indifference to that poverty is morally unacceptable. Jesus Christ motivates us to love our neighbor in practical ways. Our response to the poor is a measure of our obedience to and love for God.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ should free us from the enticements of consumerism and desire for individualistic gain. As Salvationists, we remain committed to The Salvation Army's historic mission to care for the poor and marginalized. Therefore, individually and corporately, we will work to eliminate poverty by:- Providing empowering practical assistance to poor people in our personal, family, and vocational lives, and in our congregational and organizational practices-through prayer, listening and dedication of our time and resources.- Making relational and financial choices that promote economic opportunity and justice for those in poverty.-
Evaluating public policies by how they respond to people who are poor.- Challenging racism and other attitudes that promote inequality and seeking reconciliation and harmony among all groups in our society.- Building community capacity, nurturing the bonds of family and community, and protecting the dignity of each person.- Partnering with other agencies in common commitment and action to overcome poverty in our own communities, our nation, and our world.
Growing Up in Poverty - 20/20 Documentary
Here is a YouTube link to a very moving documentary that came out earlier this year on 20/20 called, Waiting on the World to Change: The Hopes, Dreams and Hardships of Children in America's Most Dangerous City. This piece moved me so much - it reminded me of why I have dedicated my life to reclaiming children and youth through the ministries of The Salvation Army.
"While little children go hungry as they do now... I'll Fight!" William Booth
"While little children go hungry as they do now... I'll Fight!" William Booth
Monday, July 30, 2007
Is My Leadership Spiritual?
I received this article in my e-mail box today from Today's Children's Ministry. It is entitled, Is My Leadership Spiritual? by Ruth Haley Barton. Here's it is:
Most Christian leaders sense that there should be something different about our leadership than what is offered in the secular marketplace, but we're not always sure what that is.
Spiritual leadership emerges from the soul of us—that place where God's spirit and my spirit commune. This kind of leadership is not about roles and titles within organizational hierarchies; it has to do with our desire and ability to recognize and respond to the presence of God. It depends on our willingness to lead from a place of communion with him.
Spiritual leadership flows from the leader seeking after God through spiritual disciplines. Solitude and silence are two such disciplines that enable us to experience a place of authenticity and invite God to meet us. In them, we are rescued from relentless human striving so that we can experience the life of the Spirit. We give up control and allow God to be God in our lives rather than being a thought in our heads or an illustration in a sermon. We listen for the still, small voice of God telling us who we really are so that we are not enslaved by the demands and expectations of life in leadership.
There can be no compromise. Those who look to us for leadership need us to be spiritual seekers. They need us to keep searching for the bread of life that feeds our souls so that we can guide them to places of sustenance. Rather than offering the cold stone of past devotionals, regurgitated apologetics, or someone else's musings, we must offer bread that is warm from the oven of our own intimacy with God.
The choice to lead from the soul is a vulnerable approach. It means I am leading from a tender place where I do not have all the answers. It is radical because the wisdom of God is foolishness to this world and we must be ready to stand firm in the midst of skepticism and resistance.
The good news is that if I am willing to lead from here, I finally have something real to offer. The quality of my leadership is different.
Rather than leading from a place of frenetic, ego-driven activity, I am leading from a place of rest where I know what I am called to do and I am confident God will produce it. Rather than manufacturing ministry, I am leading from my own experience with God. Rather than being subject to inner compulsions of the self and outer demands of people's expectations, I am learning to respond to God's call upon my life.
While it may seem dangerous to lead from a part of myself that I am accustomed to keeping hidden, true spiritual leadership hinges upon the capacity to lead from my own transforming center. In the end, strengthening the soul of my own leadership is the best thing I can do to strengthen to the soul of the church.
Most Christian leaders sense that there should be something different about our leadership than what is offered in the secular marketplace, but we're not always sure what that is.
Spiritual leadership emerges from the soul of us—that place where God's spirit and my spirit commune. This kind of leadership is not about roles and titles within organizational hierarchies; it has to do with our desire and ability to recognize and respond to the presence of God. It depends on our willingness to lead from a place of communion with him.
Spiritual leadership flows from the leader seeking after God through spiritual disciplines. Solitude and silence are two such disciplines that enable us to experience a place of authenticity and invite God to meet us. In them, we are rescued from relentless human striving so that we can experience the life of the Spirit. We give up control and allow God to be God in our lives rather than being a thought in our heads or an illustration in a sermon. We listen for the still, small voice of God telling us who we really are so that we are not enslaved by the demands and expectations of life in leadership.
There can be no compromise. Those who look to us for leadership need us to be spiritual seekers. They need us to keep searching for the bread of life that feeds our souls so that we can guide them to places of sustenance. Rather than offering the cold stone of past devotionals, regurgitated apologetics, or someone else's musings, we must offer bread that is warm from the oven of our own intimacy with God.
The choice to lead from the soul is a vulnerable approach. It means I am leading from a tender place where I do not have all the answers. It is radical because the wisdom of God is foolishness to this world and we must be ready to stand firm in the midst of skepticism and resistance.
The good news is that if I am willing to lead from here, I finally have something real to offer. The quality of my leadership is different.
Rather than leading from a place of frenetic, ego-driven activity, I am leading from a place of rest where I know what I am called to do and I am confident God will produce it. Rather than manufacturing ministry, I am leading from my own experience with God. Rather than being subject to inner compulsions of the self and outer demands of people's expectations, I am learning to respond to God's call upon my life.
While it may seem dangerous to lead from a part of myself that I am accustomed to keeping hidden, true spiritual leadership hinges upon the capacity to lead from my own transforming center. In the end, strengthening the soul of my own leadership is the best thing I can do to strengthen to the soul of the church.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
A Theology of Cuteness - Richard Mouw Invites Theological Reflection on Social Networking Sites
Richard Mouw, the president of Fuller Theological Seminary has joined the world of blogging - His blog is entitled Mouw's Musings. A few weeks ago, he wrote an interesting post called A Theology of Cuteness? on the importance of theological reflection on everyday life. In this posting, he focuses particularly on social networking sites.
I'd encourage you to read on:
My first posting on this blog, back in December, included some brief theological comments about MySpace. Earlier I had given an expanded version of those thoughts in a talk on campus. My comments elicited many responses, mainly from people who told me that they, like me, had done some browsing on MySpace, but that they had not thought much before about the spiritual or theological implications of that phenomenon.
I’m not going to do it, but I do think it is time for someone to do a serious theological study of not only MySpace, but related sites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, and the like. Theologians have been paying much attention in recent years to popular culture–we have had good studies of how to connect the gospel to a generation that reads Harry Potter or watches sitcoms and follows the Real World escapades. I hope someone right now is working on what is going on with the folks who connect with each other on the well-known internet sites.
Recently I read a piece in a Christian magazine that described YouTube in almost exclusively negative terms. This pastor had been visiting the site, and decided that it was increasingly given over to really bad stuff. I agree that the bad stuff is there–and very prominent. But there is much that deserves more serious theological exploration.
OK, I’ll admit that I sometimes go to YouTube simply out of curiosity. For example, I have never watched “The View” on TV, but when I read references to the big blowup between Rosie O’Donnell and Elizabeth Hasselbeck I went to YouTube, and found that I had a choice between (among others) a 10:56 version, which included the lead-up conversation, and a more concise 5:01 version, with just the yelling. (I chose the shorter version.)
But one thing I did recently was to do a quick scanning of the subjects covered in YouTube’s “Most Recent” category. There were a lot of sports: some of Kobe’s best baskets, many soccer goals, boxing knockouts, hockey fights. But what surprised me was the attention given on YouTube to babies and animals. Ashley turns over for the first time. Owen gets his first bath. The infant triplets all giggling at the same time. And then all those puppies and the kittens performing 11-second antics.
Here is an observation that I offer to a budding theologian looking for a popular culture project. Amid all of the bad stuff on YouTube, there is also a lot of attention to the cute. I did a YouTube search of “cute” and came up with a report of 191,000 videos using that word in their titles. To be sure, some of those were “cute teen dancing on webcam,” but there was a lot of innocently cute in there as well.
In his famous essay “A Plea for Excuses,” the Oxford philosopher J. L. Austin complained that philosophers of art typically spent too much time focusing on beauty, when most people’s aesthetic interests are less grand. Austin expressed the hope that “we could forget for a while about the beautiful and get down instead to the dainty and the dumpy”! Maybe some creative theologian looking for a new topic could take a hint here and get down to talking about cuteness. Babies and kittens are cute, and they get a lot of attention from many people—the evidence is there at YouTube.
G. K. Chesterton offers a possible clue to explore in one of his chapters in Orthodoxy. He suggests that God’s way of appreciating things is less like that of an adult human and more like that of a child. Children love repetition, he observes. A favorite childish refrain is “Do it again!” A little kid can enjoy the 20th reading of a favorite story or poem as much as she enjoyed the first. God too enjoys repetition, says Chesterton. Every morning God says to the sun and to the hawk and to the whale, “Do it again!”–and God takes delight in what he sees.
I think of Chesterton’s point now when I read the first chapter of Genesis. God calls birds into being, and when he sees them he says, “That’s good!” And he also says “That’s good!” when suddenly the pools he has created are filled with swarming things.
God delights in simple things. I think God says “That’s good!” when he sees baby Ashley turn over for the first time, and when he sees the triplets giggle, and when he watches a kitten play with a ball of yarn. When we laugh at something cute we are, in a sense, recovering something of our childhood. But we are also doing something God-like. A theology of cuteness, I suspect, would do something to illuminate the notion of divine “delight.”
There’s a lot of bad stuff on YouTube. And then there are the things—like the Rosie-Elizabeth shouting match—that one can take or leave. But the cute stuff—well, I suspect even God enjoys some of that.
I'd encourage you to read on:
My first posting on this blog, back in December, included some brief theological comments about MySpace. Earlier I had given an expanded version of those thoughts in a talk on campus. My comments elicited many responses, mainly from people who told me that they, like me, had done some browsing on MySpace, but that they had not thought much before about the spiritual or theological implications of that phenomenon.
I’m not going to do it, but I do think it is time for someone to do a serious theological study of not only MySpace, but related sites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, and the like. Theologians have been paying much attention in recent years to popular culture–we have had good studies of how to connect the gospel to a generation that reads Harry Potter or watches sitcoms and follows the Real World escapades. I hope someone right now is working on what is going on with the folks who connect with each other on the well-known internet sites.
Recently I read a piece in a Christian magazine that described YouTube in almost exclusively negative terms. This pastor had been visiting the site, and decided that it was increasingly given over to really bad stuff. I agree that the bad stuff is there–and very prominent. But there is much that deserves more serious theological exploration.
OK, I’ll admit that I sometimes go to YouTube simply out of curiosity. For example, I have never watched “The View” on TV, but when I read references to the big blowup between Rosie O’Donnell and Elizabeth Hasselbeck I went to YouTube, and found that I had a choice between (among others) a 10:56 version, which included the lead-up conversation, and a more concise 5:01 version, with just the yelling. (I chose the shorter version.)
But one thing I did recently was to do a quick scanning of the subjects covered in YouTube’s “Most Recent” category. There were a lot of sports: some of Kobe’s best baskets, many soccer goals, boxing knockouts, hockey fights. But what surprised me was the attention given on YouTube to babies and animals. Ashley turns over for the first time. Owen gets his first bath. The infant triplets all giggling at the same time. And then all those puppies and the kittens performing 11-second antics.
Here is an observation that I offer to a budding theologian looking for a popular culture project. Amid all of the bad stuff on YouTube, there is also a lot of attention to the cute. I did a YouTube search of “cute” and came up with a report of 191,000 videos using that word in their titles. To be sure, some of those were “cute teen dancing on webcam,” but there was a lot of innocently cute in there as well.
In his famous essay “A Plea for Excuses,” the Oxford philosopher J. L. Austin complained that philosophers of art typically spent too much time focusing on beauty, when most people’s aesthetic interests are less grand. Austin expressed the hope that “we could forget for a while about the beautiful and get down instead to the dainty and the dumpy”! Maybe some creative theologian looking for a new topic could take a hint here and get down to talking about cuteness. Babies and kittens are cute, and they get a lot of attention from many people—the evidence is there at YouTube.
G. K. Chesterton offers a possible clue to explore in one of his chapters in Orthodoxy. He suggests that God’s way of appreciating things is less like that of an adult human and more like that of a child. Children love repetition, he observes. A favorite childish refrain is “Do it again!” A little kid can enjoy the 20th reading of a favorite story or poem as much as she enjoyed the first. God too enjoys repetition, says Chesterton. Every morning God says to the sun and to the hawk and to the whale, “Do it again!”–and God takes delight in what he sees.
I think of Chesterton’s point now when I read the first chapter of Genesis. God calls birds into being, and when he sees them he says, “That’s good!” And he also says “That’s good!” when suddenly the pools he has created are filled with swarming things.
God delights in simple things. I think God says “That’s good!” when he sees baby Ashley turn over for the first time, and when he sees the triplets giggle, and when he watches a kitten play with a ball of yarn. When we laugh at something cute we are, in a sense, recovering something of our childhood. But we are also doing something God-like. A theology of cuteness, I suspect, would do something to illuminate the notion of divine “delight.”
There’s a lot of bad stuff on YouTube. And then there are the things—like the Rosie-Elizabeth shouting match—that one can take or leave. But the cute stuff—well, I suspect even God enjoys some of that.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
The Calling to Youth Work - A Stepping Stone to Bigger and Better Things?
Last night, I was at Barnes and Noble scoping out the bookshelves for something new and interesting. I stumbled on an older youth ministry book that has recently been revised and updated. It's by Mark DeVries and is called Family-Based Youth Ministry. I came across this quote which enticed me to read the whole book.In the forward, Earl E. Palmer states:
"Mark DeVries takes youth seriously, and, therefore, he does not see the role of the youth pastor as a steppingstone to larger ministries or what might be thought of as more important appointments. He sees youth ministry as a totally significant post, just as pediatrics in medicine is not an entry level into medicine that later evolves toward the 'more important' responsibility of geriatrics." (DeVries, 9)
There is a desperate need for us to take youth work seriously - not as a passing fad that people do enroute to adulthood - or until they are able to find 'real' jobs, but as a calling, a ministry, a life-long vocation that requires both the ingenuity and idealism of young adulthood, but also the commitment and refined wisdom of those who are older.
I always think of the veteran youth worker, Dean Borgman (from Gordon-
Conwell Theological Seminary), who has remained a committed youth worker all of his life. Take a look at his picture: you will see no tattoos, no body piercings, no fancy clothes or glasses, but his knowledge and experience of youth work is incredibly sophisticated. A person would be a fool not to tap into the long-term wisdom that has come from his years on this frontline ministry.
Conwell Theological Seminary), who has remained a committed youth worker all of his life. Take a look at his picture: you will see no tattoos, no body piercings, no fancy clothes or glasses, but his knowledge and experience of youth work is incredibly sophisticated. A person would be a fool not to tap into the long-term wisdom that has come from his years on this frontline ministry. Another great example in The Salvation Army is Lynell Johnson - who writes the Hopeshare curriculum. Whenever I interact with Lynell, I am always amazed at the passion, knowledge and commitment that comes from years of serving the Lord through children and youth work.
I also can't help but think about who taught me Sunday School when I was a kid. Often it was a retired school teacher and grandma who doesn't fit our modern profile of youth worker, but is someone whose ministry is both legitimate and essential as she has raised spiritual children for multiple generations...
While there are great benefits to being a youth worker in their mid-twenties, there are equally great assets to be gained from a... 'well-seasoned' youth worker. I think that it's about time that we broaden our horizons to what we understand this responsibility to be. Otherwise, the profession of youth work will continue to be perceived of as the Mickey Mouse training ground for bigger and better things... I don't mean to suggest that we see fifty-five year olds becoming teenage 'fakesters' dressed up like wolves in sheeps clothing... rather, that we don't reduce our definition of youth work down to something that expires after its' best before date...
My hope and prayer is that we begin to see more and more people who consider youth work their calling - rather than being a stepping stone to something bigger and better, that they perceive it as a bedrock on which they can build meaningful and transformational ministry with children and youth for a lifetime.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
10 is the new 15 as kids grow up faster
Check out this report from MSNBC on the accelerated development of the 'tween.' This is where research becomes hard facts for me as my own daughters turn 9 and 10... and the grey hairs ensue!
Risk and Resilience in Urban Ministry: Stress, Spirituality, and Support
Fuller Theological Seminary's Center for Youth & Family Ministry (CYFM) has recently posted the full report of their research (Urban Empowerment Project) on the challenges of ministry for urban youth workers. The purpose of this project is '...to increase the capacity of youth workers to spread the gospel in urban settings by offering training in the personal and professional skills needed for effective long-term ministry."
Here's the full report: Risk and Resilience in Urban Ministry: Stress, Spirituality, and Support.
It's great to see this type of research coming out. It's a great help for those of us in youth work.
Here's the full report: Risk and Resilience in Urban Ministry: Stress, Spirituality, and Support.
It's great to see this type of research coming out. It's a great help for those of us in youth work.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Bibliography from HOPE for Children in Poverty
I'm compiling a list of books referenced in HOPE for Children in Poverty. This is one of the most amazing lists of resources I have come across in recent days:
Bakke, O.M.; & McNeil, B. (2005). When children became people: The birth of childhood in early christianity. Augsburg Fortress Press.
Berstein, J.; Brocht, C.; & Spade-Aguilar, M. (2000). How much is enough? Basic family budgets for working families. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.
Boxil, N. (1990) Homeless children: The watchers and the waiters. Binghampton: NY: Haworth Press.
Brendtro, L.K.; Brokenleg, M.; & Van Bockern, S. (2002) Reclaiming youth at risk: Our hope for the future, rev. ed. Bloomington, Il: Solution Tree.
Brooks-Gunn, J.B. & Duncan, G.J. (summer/fall, 1997). "The effects of poverty on children," The future of children, children and poverty 7, no.2.
Bunge, M.J. (2001). The child in christian thought. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Children's Defense Fund. (August, 2005) "Defining poverty and why it matters for children." http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/DocServer/definingpoverty.pdf?docID=390. (Downloaded: July, 2007).
Children's Defense Fund. (1994) Wasting America's future. Boston: Beacon.
Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program (C SNAP). (2004) The safety net in action: Protecting the health and nutrition of young American children. Boston: C SNAP. (p.1)
Claiman, V.; Butler, D.; & Boyatt, J. (1994) Acting on your faith: Congregations making a difference, A guide to success in service and social action. Boston: Insights.
Couture, P. (2000) Seeing children, seeing God: A practical theology of children and poverty. Nashville, TN: Abingdon.
Crawford, P.M. et al. (January-March 2004). "How can Californians be overweight and hungry?" California Agriculture 58: 1.
Dahl, G. & Lochner, L. (August, 2005). "The impact of family income on child achievement," Institute for Research on Poverty, Discussion Paper 1305-05.
Daley, S. & Guy, K. (1994) Welcome the child: A child advocacy guide for churches. New York: Friendship Press and Children's Defense Fund.
DeNavas-Walt, C.; Proctor, B.; & Lee, C.H. (2006). Current population reports, P60-231. "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005" U.S. Census Bureau. (p.52)
Department of Health and Human Services. (2007). Suicide: Fact sheet. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dodson, L. (1999) Don't call us out of name: The untold lives of women and girls in poor America. Boston: Beacon Press.
Edelman, M.W. (1995) Guide my feet: Prayers and meditations on loving and working for children. Boston: Beacon Hill. (p.183f.)
Ehlig, B. & Payne, R. (1999) What every which member should know about poverty. Aha! Process.
Elliott, B. (2004). Street saints: Renewing America's cities. Radnor, PA: Templeton Foundation Press.
Fass, S. & Cauthen, N.K. (September, 2005). "Child poverty in states hit by Katrina," New York: National Center for Children in Poverty, Fact Sheet No 1.
Forum on Child and Family Statistics. (2006). "America's children in brief: Key national indicators of well-being, 2006."
Forum on Child and Family Statistics. (2005). "America's children: Key national indicators of well-being, 2005."
Frank, D.A. (July 16, 2003). Statement before the subcommittee on education reform -Committee on education and the workforce. U.S. House of Representatives.
Huston, A.C. (1991) Children in poverty: Child development and public policy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, J. (2001) Growing compassionate kids: Helping kids see beyond their backyard. Nashville: Upper Room.
Keller, T. (1989) Ministries of mercy: The call of the jericho road. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R.
KidsCount. (2006). 2006 Kids count data book: State profiles of child well-being. The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Kozol, J. (1996) Amazing grace: The lives of children and the conscience of a nation, 2nd ed. New York: Harper Perenniel.
Larson, D.B.; & Johnson, B.R. (1998) Religion: The forgotten factor in cutting youth crime and saving at-risk urban youth. Jeremiah Project Report 98-2. New York: The Manhattan Insititute.
Ludwig, J. & Mayer, S. (Fall, 2006) "Culture and the intergenerational transmission of poverty: The prevention paradox." The Future of Children 16, 2: 175.
Lupton, R. (2007) Compassion, justice, and the christian life: Rethinking ministry to the poor. Ventura, CA: Regal Books.
Mayer, S.E. (1997) What money can't buy: Family income and children's life chances. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Miller, K & Wilson, M. (1985) The church that cares: Identifying and responding to needs in your community. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press.
National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP). (September, 2006) Basic facts about low-income children: Birth to age 18. New York: Columbia University: Mailman School of Public Health.
National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP). (April, 2006) On the edge in the empire state: New York's low-income children. New York: Columbia University: Mailman School of Public Health.
National Coalition for the Homeless. (June, 2006). "Fact sheet #2: How many people experience homelessness."
Nord, M.; Andrews, M.; & Carlson, S. (2005). Household security in the United States, 2004. Washington, DC: United States Department of Agriculture.
Odom, R. (2006) Suffer the children: The impact of poverty on America's future. Minneapolis: Love INC. (p.4)
Perkins, J. (1995) Restoring at-risk communities: Doing it together and doing it right. Grand Rapids: Baker.
Rank, M.R. (2004). One nation, underprivileged: Why American poverty affects us all. New York: Oxford University Press.
Regnerus, M.D. (2002) "Making the grade: The influence of religion upon the academic performance of youth in disadvantaged communities," CRRUCS Report. Philadelphia, PA: Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society.
Richardson, W. (1996) Reclaiming the urban family: How to mobilize the church as a family center. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Roehlkepartain, J.L. (2000) Teaching kids to care and share. Nashville: Abingdon.
Rusaw, R. & Swanson, E. (2004) The externally focused church. Loveland, CO: Group.
Sampson, R.; Raudenbush, S.; & Earls, F. (August, 1997) "Neighborhoods and violent crime: A multilevel study of collective efficacy," Science 277.
Sanfers, C. (1997) Ministry at the margins. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Schein, V.E. (1995) Working for the margins: Voices of mothers in poverty. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Schwarz, J.E. & Volgy, T.J. (2004). Forgotten Americans: Thirty million working poor in the land of opportunity. New York: Norton.
Sherman, A.L. (2001) The abcs of community ministry: A curriculum for congregations. Washington, DC: Hudson Institute.
Shipler, D.K. (2004). The working poor: Invisible in America. New York: Knopf.
Sider, R.J. (2007) Just generosity: A new vision for overcoming poverty in America , 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker.
Sider, R.J.; Oldon, P.; & Unruh, H.R. (2002) Churches that make a difference: Reaching your community with good news and good works. Grand Rapids: Baker.
Stanton, G. (?) Suffer the little children. Youthworks College.
Strange. W.A. (1996). Children in the early church. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.
Toppo, G. (June 20, 2006). "Big-City Schools Struggle with Graduation Rates," USA Today.
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2001). Public elementary/seconday school universe survey, 1999-2000.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (September, 1996). National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, Third national incidence study of child abuse and neglect, NIS 3 (Executive Summary).
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families. (2006) Child maltreatment 2004.
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Browing, K.; Thornberry, T.; & Porter, P. (April, 1999) "Highlights of findings from the Rochester youth development study," OJJDP Fact Sheet #103, FS 99103.
Van Groningen, J. (2005) Communities first. Grand Rapids: CRWRC.
Weber, B. et al. (October, 2005). "A critical review of rural poverty literature: Is there truly a rural effect?" Institute for Research on Poverty, Discussion Paper 1309-05.
Wood, D. (September, 2003). "Effect of child and family poverty on child health in the United States," Pediatrics 112, no.3, 707.
Wood, D. (1994). The church and childhood: Studies in church history. Ecclessiastical History Society.
Bakke, O.M.; & McNeil, B. (2005). When children became people: The birth of childhood in early christianity. Augsburg Fortress Press.
Berstein, J.; Brocht, C.; & Spade-Aguilar, M. (2000). How much is enough? Basic family budgets for working families. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.
Boxil, N. (1990) Homeless children: The watchers and the waiters. Binghampton: NY: Haworth Press.
Brendtro, L.K.; Brokenleg, M.; & Van Bockern, S. (2002) Reclaiming youth at risk: Our hope for the future, rev. ed. Bloomington, Il: Solution Tree.
Brooks-Gunn, J.B. & Duncan, G.J. (summer/fall, 1997). "The effects of poverty on children," The future of children, children and poverty 7, no.2.
Bunge, M.J. (2001). The child in christian thought. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Children's Defense Fund. (August, 2005) "Defining poverty and why it matters for children." http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/DocServer/definingpoverty.pdf?docID=390. (Downloaded: July, 2007).
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Claiman, V.; Butler, D.; & Boyatt, J. (1994) Acting on your faith: Congregations making a difference, A guide to success in service and social action. Boston: Insights.
Couture, P. (2000) Seeing children, seeing God: A practical theology of children and poverty. Nashville, TN: Abingdon.
Crawford, P.M. et al. (January-March 2004). "How can Californians be overweight and hungry?" California Agriculture 58: 1.
Dahl, G. & Lochner, L. (August, 2005). "The impact of family income on child achievement," Institute for Research on Poverty, Discussion Paper 1305-05.
Daley, S. & Guy, K. (1994) Welcome the child: A child advocacy guide for churches. New York: Friendship Press and Children's Defense Fund.
DeNavas-Walt, C.; Proctor, B.; & Lee, C.H. (2006). Current population reports, P60-231. "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005" U.S. Census Bureau. (p.52)
Department of Health and Human Services. (2007). Suicide: Fact sheet. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dodson, L. (1999) Don't call us out of name: The untold lives of women and girls in poor America. Boston: Beacon Press.
Edelman, M.W. (1995) Guide my feet: Prayers and meditations on loving and working for children. Boston: Beacon Hill. (p.183f.)
Ehlig, B. & Payne, R. (1999) What every which member should know about poverty. Aha! Process.
Elliott, B. (2004). Street saints: Renewing America's cities. Radnor, PA: Templeton Foundation Press.
Fass, S. & Cauthen, N.K. (September, 2005). "Child poverty in states hit by Katrina," New York: National Center for Children in Poverty, Fact Sheet No 1.
Forum on Child and Family Statistics. (2006). "America's children in brief: Key national indicators of well-being, 2006."
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Frank, D.A. (July 16, 2003). Statement before the subcommittee on education reform -Committee on education and the workforce. U.S. House of Representatives.
Huston, A.C. (1991) Children in poverty: Child development and public policy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, J. (2001) Growing compassionate kids: Helping kids see beyond their backyard. Nashville: Upper Room.
Keller, T. (1989) Ministries of mercy: The call of the jericho road. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R.
KidsCount. (2006). 2006 Kids count data book: State profiles of child well-being. The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Kozol, J. (1996) Amazing grace: The lives of children and the conscience of a nation, 2nd ed. New York: Harper Perenniel.
Larson, D.B.; & Johnson, B.R. (1998) Religion: The forgotten factor in cutting youth crime and saving at-risk urban youth. Jeremiah Project Report 98-2. New York: The Manhattan Insititute.
Ludwig, J. & Mayer, S. (Fall, 2006) "Culture and the intergenerational transmission of poverty: The prevention paradox." The Future of Children 16, 2: 175.
Lupton, R. (2007) Compassion, justice, and the christian life: Rethinking ministry to the poor. Ventura, CA: Regal Books.
Mayer, S.E. (1997) What money can't buy: Family income and children's life chances. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Miller, K & Wilson, M. (1985) The church that cares: Identifying and responding to needs in your community. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press.
National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP). (September, 2006) Basic facts about low-income children: Birth to age 18. New York: Columbia University: Mailman School of Public Health.
National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP). (April, 2006) On the edge in the empire state: New York's low-income children. New York: Columbia University: Mailman School of Public Health.
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Nord, M.; Andrews, M.; & Carlson, S. (2005). Household security in the United States, 2004. Washington, DC: United States Department of Agriculture.
Odom, R. (2006) Suffer the children: The impact of poverty on America's future. Minneapolis: Love INC. (p.4)
Perkins, J. (1995) Restoring at-risk communities: Doing it together and doing it right. Grand Rapids: Baker.
Rank, M.R. (2004). One nation, underprivileged: Why American poverty affects us all. New York: Oxford University Press.
Regnerus, M.D. (2002) "Making the grade: The influence of religion upon the academic performance of youth in disadvantaged communities," CRRUCS Report. Philadelphia, PA: Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society.
Richardson, W. (1996) Reclaiming the urban family: How to mobilize the church as a family center. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Roehlkepartain, J.L. (2000) Teaching kids to care and share. Nashville: Abingdon.
Rusaw, R. & Swanson, E. (2004) The externally focused church. Loveland, CO: Group.
Sampson, R.; Raudenbush, S.; & Earls, F. (August, 1997) "Neighborhoods and violent crime: A multilevel study of collective efficacy," Science 277.
Sanfers, C. (1997) Ministry at the margins. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Schein, V.E. (1995) Working for the margins: Voices of mothers in poverty. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Schwarz, J.E. & Volgy, T.J. (2004). Forgotten Americans: Thirty million working poor in the land of opportunity. New York: Norton.
Sherman, A.L. (2001) The abcs of community ministry: A curriculum for congregations. Washington, DC: Hudson Institute.
Shipler, D.K. (2004). The working poor: Invisible in America. New York: Knopf.
Sider, R.J. (2007) Just generosity: A new vision for overcoming poverty in America , 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker.
Sider, R.J.; Oldon, P.; & Unruh, H.R. (2002) Churches that make a difference: Reaching your community with good news and good works. Grand Rapids: Baker.
Stanton, G. (?) Suffer the little children. Youthworks College.
Strange. W.A. (1996). Children in the early church. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.
Toppo, G. (June 20, 2006). "Big-City Schools Struggle with Graduation Rates," USA Today.
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2001). Public elementary/seconday school universe survey, 1999-2000.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (September, 1996). National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, Third national incidence study of child abuse and neglect, NIS 3 (Executive Summary).
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families. (2006) Child maltreatment 2004.
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Browing, K.; Thornberry, T.; & Porter, P. (April, 1999) "Highlights of findings from the Rochester youth development study," OJJDP Fact Sheet #103, FS 99103.
Van Groningen, J. (2005) Communities first. Grand Rapids: CRWRC.
Weber, B. et al. (October, 2005). "A critical review of rural poverty literature: Is there truly a rural effect?" Institute for Research on Poverty, Discussion Paper 1309-05.
Wood, D. (September, 2003). "Effect of child and family poverty on child health in the United States," Pediatrics 112, no.3, 707.
Wood, D. (1994). The church and childhood: Studies in church history. Ecclessiastical History Society.
HOPE for Children in Poverty: Profiles and Possibilities
This is the book I have been waiting for somebody to publish for years...HOPE for Children in Poverty: Profiles and Possibilities is one of the most essential tools that I would recommend as a must read for anyone involved in youth work in the United States. Edited by Ron Sider and Heidi Unruh, they take us deep into the world of children and youth who are suffering the ravaging abuse of poverty.
The first section deals with the lives of children in poverty. They are not merely presenting quantitative evidence of poverty, but are also amplifying the voices of these children that qualitatively support why poverty is an issue that desperately needs to be addressed in this nation.
The second section explores the special concerns of children in poverty - addressing the difficulties of family life, and need for reform in education-, health care-, and welfare-systems. However, this book is not simply a rant complaining about the problems - it also looks at the possibilities that exist - profiling (in particular) faith-based initiatives that are responding to the cries of today's youth.
In the third section, they explore Biblical reflection on children in poverty. As an evangelical, I appreciate their reminder that our commitment to reclaim children and youth is rooted at the core of our faith tradition. This is not something to be a sidebar of our faith - it is at the core of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
The Appendices are worth their weight in gold - loading the reader with a ton of recommended resources that help us understand child poverty and mobilize the church to respond to poverty. I was especially encouraged when they quote Railton School's theme verse: Isaiah 1:17 - stating, "God is inviting you to 'learn to do good.' ...Just as the needs are great, the possibilities for ministry are endless. No one can do everything... but we are all called to do something" (p.164). I challenge you to READ THIS BOOK - it is a manifesto truly on reclaiming children and youth.
As I read these articles from youth work giants like Marian Wright Edelman, Jonathon Kozol, and Amy Sherman; I find myself encouraged, challenged, and fueled to continue to do my utmost to be like Jesus. I pray that you, too will experience the fire in the belly I felt after reading this.
Click here to access the study guide that Judson Press has put out to accompany this book.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Today Show April 20, 2006: Why Are Younger Americans So Miserable - with Jean Twenge, author of Generation Me
Here's a link to when Jean Twenge was on the Today Show discussing her book, Generation Me. I find it interesting how columnist Harriette Cole tries to insist that we must love ourselves before we learn to love others - a common misperception of the self-esteem movement!Click on the image to view the video file.
Generation Me - Chapter 8
Jean Twenge has written a very interesting book studying today's youngest generation to have come of age. In these postings, I will begin to provide key quotes and references that have stood out to me. From that, I have posted a few questions for reflection. For more information on this book, I encourage you to explore her website: generationme.orgAlso see my article: Me, MySpace and iPod: Tales of a Culture Stuck in the Mirror Phase of Development and Its Moral Implications
YOU DON'T NEED THEIR APPROVAL: The Decline of Social Rules
AN ARMY OF ONE: Me
You Can Be Anything You Want to Be
The Age of Anxiety (and Depression, and Loneliness): Generation Stressed
Yeah, Right: The Belief That There's No Point in Trying
Sex: Generation Prude Meets Generation Crude
The Equality Revolution: Minorities, Women, and Gays and Lesbians
CHAPTER 8:
Applying Our Knowledge: The Future of Business and the Future of the Young
NOTABLE QUOTES
"So here's how it looks: Generation Me has the highest self-esteem of any generation, but also the most depression. We are more free and equal, but also more cynical. We expect to follow our dreams, but are anxious about making that happen... The first wave of GenMe faces a very different world from what we were led to expect as children. The messages of our youth were ungflaggingly optimistic: You can be anything. Just be yourself. Always follow your dreams..." (p.212).
"So here's how it looks: Generation Me has the highest self-esteem of any generation, but also the most depression. We are more free and equal, but also more cynical. We expect to follow our dreams, but are anxious about making that happen... The first wave of GenMe faces a very different world from what we were led to expect as children. The messages of our youth were ungflaggingly optimistic: You can be anything. Just be yourself. Always follow your dreams..." (p.212).
"And what will GenMe's children be like? This is not as futuristic a question as it sounds - first-wave GenMe'ers are already in the prime child-rearing years of 25 to 35. It is difficult to tell right now if GenMe is adopting the same child-rearing approach as their parents, but it appears that they are. As a result, the next generation may be even more self-focused" (p.215).
"What do these generational changes mean for managers who work with younger people? The first step is to try to understand Generation me - realize that younger employees may have a very different outlook on life... Some will arrive with a feeling of entitlement, believing they deserve everything right away... Be prepared to explain to young people that success and privileges will not happen overnight; add that you know this is frustrating, but it's the way business works. Your patience and understanding will pay off... So what, specifically can you expect from your young employees? They will work hard, but even harder if they are praised and appreciated... This generation is not motivated by feelings of duty - working hard is not virtuous in itself, but it is worth it if they are singled out and recognized" (p.216f.).
"Your young employees wull learn best by doing. Raised with the Internet and in collaborative learning classrooms, they are not used to sitting through long, boring lectures. Training seminars will put them to sleep if they are not interactive. A generation raised not just on television but on cable, they will perk up during a presentation with video clips and moving graphics. They'll perk up even more if you can get them involved through a demonstration or role-playing. One-on-one training should be Socratic and task-oriented - don't just show them something, but have them do it themselves" (p.217f.)
"...young employees may need some guidance on how to deal with older people. They may come off as disrespectful when they are merely being friendly and informal. Some young employees might need to be taught to 'clean up' when talking to older folks, using 'Mr.' and 'Mrs.' and speaking more formally" (p.218).
QUESTIONS TO PONDER
1.
Generation Me - Chapter 7
Jean Twenge has written a very interesting book studying today's youngest generation to have come of age. In these postings, I will begin to provide key quotes and references that have stood out to me. From that, I have posted a few questions for reflection. For more information on this book, I encourage you to explore her website: generationme.org Also see my article: Me, MySpace and iPod: Tales of a Culture Stuck in the Mirror Phase of Development and Its Moral Implications
AN ARMY OF ONE: Me
You Can Be Anything You Want to Be
The Age of Anxiety (and Depression, and Loneliness): Generation Stressed
Yeah, Right: The Belief That There's No Point in Trying
Sex: Generation Prude Meets Generation Crude
CHAPTER 7:
The Equality Revolution: Minorities, Women, and Gays and Lesbians
The Equality Revolution: Minorities, Women, and Gays and Lesbians
NOTABLE QUOTES
"In just four decades, the United States has undergone a transformation of attitudes about women, minorities, and gays and lesbians. The revolution of equality was, without question, the largest social change in America in the last half of the twentieth century. No other trend has had such a colossal impact on every aspect of our lives" (p.181).
Chris Colin in What Really Happened to the Class of '93: "'Tolerance' and 'acceptance' might have become buzzwords in the '90s, but my generation had dealt in those concepts since Sesame Street..." "We are less likely to believe in moral absolutes, so we are tolerant and accept diversity in all its forms" (p.181).
"During the 1980s, however, black Americans' self-esteem increased until it was noticeably higher than whites'. By the 1990s, 58% of blacks, and 61% of black college students, displayed above-average self-esteem. This is surprising given the usual belief that ethnic minorities will have lower self-esteem; clearly, young black Americans feel good about themselves... Black GenMe kids grew up hearing that Black is Beautiful, seeing people who looked like them play doctors and lawyers on TV, and (particularly if they were middle class) expecting to go to college - why shouldn't they feel good about themselves" (p.185)?
"These stories clearly show one of the upsides of individualism: young people who appreciate their culture and can take advantage of opportunities their parents never had. Although economic pressures still limit the goals of many minority youth, their race or ethnicity is no longer an automatic disqualification... But is the upswing in minority kids' self-esteem an unmitigated good? ...It's certainly good for young people to take pride in their ethnic identity, no matter what their background; feeling comfortable in your own skin is obviously important. But like the general self-esteem programs, ethnic self-esteem programs often take things too far and focus on the wrong causes. Raising children's self-esteem is not going to solve the problems of poverty and crime. it doesn't do much good for a child to have high self-esteem if his grades are poor, he gets in trouble in class, and he has no concrete plan for the future" (p.187).
"The feminist message for women is inextrivably linked to the individualist message, and whether girls heard the call of independence from their family or only from the outside culture, they listened. Gender equality is so taken for granted now that these trends are unlikely to reverse; girls growing up right now will become the most liberated generation of women in history - until their own daughters outstrip them" (p.192).
"GenMe girls have also seen their mothers work outside the home more than any other previous generation. In a 2000 survey, 82% of 18-to-22-year-olds said their mothers worked outside the home at least some of the time when they were growing up, compared to 65% of the mothers of Boomers and only 34% of the mothers of the World War II generation. Studies have found that giels with working mothers are more likely to embrace traditionally masculine traits like ambition and independence. Seeing Mom go off to work provides a daily role model for girls, showing them that women have roles outside the home. Many GenMe women - and men - take it for granted that mothers will work at least part of the time" (p.195).
"...today's fathers are clearly more involved than those of previous generations... Married fathers spent three times as much time interacting with their kids in 1998 as they did in 1975" (p.197).
"There is little question that American society has grown more accepting of homosexuality recently, and nowhere is that more evident than among young people... Some teens find their experiences at odds with their religious upbringing. For many, this means that they see gays as sinners, and/or believe that gays can change to be straight. Others find themselves questioning their beliefs" (p.207 & 209).
QUESTIONS TO PONDER
1. It is interesting that Twenge follows a common pattern and groups ethnicity, gender and sexuality as parallel civil rights issues. Does it seem that there is a difference between generations perception of these issues?
2. Twenge talks about the rise in self-esteem of GenMe's who are part of the African American community. Is this a fair assessment - particularly when considering the current state of many inner city (and largely African American) communities?
3. With the shift in roles toward more egalitarian approaches to both work and parenting, how should institutions begin to redefine their understanding of the role of men and women in both of these settings?
4. Considering the exponential increase of media representations of celebrity and displays of homosexual activity via reality show, sitcom and teenage drama (p.208f.); is it possible that this is contributing to the increase in social experimentation of sexual identity among GenMe?
Generation Me - Chapter 6
Jean Twenge has written a very interesting book studying today's youngest generation to have come of age. In these postings, I will begin to provide key quotes and references that have stood out to me. From that, I have posted a few questions for reflection. For more information on this book, I encourage you to explore her website: generationme.org Also see my article: Me, MySpace and iPod: Tales of a Culture Stuck in the Mirror Phase of Development and Its Moral Implications
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1:
YOU DON'T NEED THEIR APPROVAL: The Decline of Social Rules
CHAPTER 2:
AN ARMY OF ONE: Me
CHAPTER 3:
You Can Be Anything You Want to Be
CHAPTER 4:
The Age of Anxiety (and Depression, and Loneliness): Generation Stressed
CHAPTER 5:
Yeah, Right: The Belief That There's No Point in Trying
CHAPTER 6:
Sex: Generation Prude Meets Generation Crude
NOTABLE QUOTES
"Hooking up is increasingly common, and even sex within boyfriend-girlfriend relationships begins at younger and younger ages. Waiting for marriage is, to put it mildly, quaint. The vast majority of Generation Me does not wait until they are married to have sex. Most do not even wait to graduate from high school... Even religious teenagers with strict parents soon find themselves sexually active... Whether you see the new sexuality as freeing or wanton, the tie to individualism is obvious: do what feels good for you, and ignore the rules of society. On the other hand, the changes in sexual behavior are so dramatic that it's not clear that there are any universally agreed-upon rules about sex anymore" (p.160).
"In the late 1950s, only 30% of young people approved of sex before marriage; now 75% approve. The change in attitudes was even more striking among young women: only 12% approved of premarital sex in the 1950s compared with 80% now. Just as earlier generations found it somewhat shocking to hear about premarital sex, GenMe is shocked by the lack of it. Many ask how you'd know if you were sexually compatible with someone if you didn't have sex before you got married" (p.163).
"What about those abstinence pledges you hear so much about? They don't work. A whopping 88% of teens who take abstinence pledges have sexual intercourse before marriage. These teens do tend to wait about a year and a half longer to have sex, and had fewer partners. However, participants in abstinence programs were less likely to use condoms and thus more likely to acquire sexually transmitted diseases like chlamydia or HIV" (p.164).
"Many Boomers are struck by how today's young people are so comfortable talking about sex. We know all the terms, and can say them with little embarrassment... Perhaps because GenMe has grown up in a time of more relaxed gender roles, many of us have talked about sexual topics with friends of the other sex" (p.165).
"Many other sexual behaviors are also now more common. Oral sex is now sometimes called 'the new third base.' Numerous newspaper stories have covered a supposed epidemic of oral sex among 12- and 13-year-olds in middle schools. Many kids say that oral sex is common by eighth or ninth grade" (p.165).
"The most striking shift in teenage and twentysomething sexual behavior in the last decade is the disconnect between sex and emotional involvement..." (p.167).
"Hooking up has been facilitated by technology like the Internet and cell phones. It's pretty simple - if you're a teenager, you can meet lots of people online, and then you ring them on their cells so you don't have to talk to their parents... The Internet helps too, with its myriad of hookup sites" (p.169).
Rebecca Collins: "The impact of television viewing is so large that even a moderate shift in the sexual content of adolescent TV watching could have a substantial effect on their sexual behavior" (p.171).
"A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 70% of 15-to-17-year-old teens have seen Internet porn... And if that weren't enough, young girls who post to Internet message boards sometimes find themselves pursued by older men. It's no wonder that parents are concerned about these issues - sex just seems so much more available, and so much more dangerous, than it was when they were young. And they might be right" (p.173).
"Many people, especially the younger half of GenMe, have begun to use 'single' to mean 'not dating anyone'" (p.177).
"Today in the United States, more than 11 million unmarried people live together. The rate of living together increased 500% from 1970 to 1990, and another 72% between 1990 and 2000. Couples who wait to live together until after the wedding are now the minority, and this trend is likely to continue" (p.177).
"Marriage is also increasingly optional even with parenthood. In 2003, 34.6% of babies were born to unmarried women, the highest rate ever recorded. That's more than 1 out of 3. (Even though the teen birthrate is down, so many more unmarried women in their twenties and thirties are having children that this figure continues to rise.) If the United States follows trends in Europe, the number of children born outside of marriage may rise to half of all births" (p.178).
QUESTIONS TO PONDER
1. According to this chapter, Twenge suggests that there is an increased comfortability with conversation about sexuality among Generation Me. Along with this has emerged a redefinition of the moral boundaries defined by previous generations. With this increased openness, how does the church engage in dialogue on issues of sexuality?
2. On page 160, Twenge suggests that abstinence pledges have not been working as 88% of teens who take this pledge end up having sex before marriage. Are there alternative strategies that could be applied to help teens and twentysomethings cope with this tension?
3. Twenge comments that "The most striking shift in teenage and twentysomething sexual behavior in the last decade is the disconnect between sex and emotional involvement" (p.167). How does this trend contrast with C.S. Lewis' commentary on the subject where he states, "The monstrosity of sexual intercourse outside of marriage is that those who indulge in it are trying to isolate one kind of union (the sexual) from all the kinds of union which were intended to go along with it and make up the total union." (Lewis, Mere Christianity, p.96)?
4. When most media conglomerates are going to cater to what will increase ratings and boost sales, how does one address the increase of sexual indescretion on the multiple media that today's youth interact with?
5. With marriage becoming devalued in the social spheres of today's youth (p.178), what are the social and psychological consequences of this decision?
Generation Me - Chapter 5
Jean Twenge has written a very interesting book studying today's youngest generation to have come of age. In these postings, I will begin to provide key quotes and references that have stood out to me. From that, I have posted a few questions for reflection. For more information on this book, I encourage you to explore her website: generationme.org Also see my article: Me, MySpace and iPod: Tales of a Culture Stuck in the Mirror Phase of Development and Its Moral Implications
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1:
YOU DON'T NEED THEIR APPROVAL: The Decline of Social Rules
CHAPTER 2:
AN ARMY OF ONE: Me
CHAPTER 3:
You Can Be Anything You Want to Be
CHAPTER 4:
The Age of Anxiety (and Depression, and Loneliness): Generation Stressed
CHAPTER 5:
Yeah, Right: The Belief That There's No Point in Trying
NOTABLE QUOTES
"Most of Generation Me's days are like this: filled with events and circumstances that we can't control. So why should we try? Perhaps as a result, older people complain that the idea of personal responsibility has faded, that young people blame others for their problems, and that apathy is rampant. We're not just Generation Me; we're Generation Whatever. The young are the new cynics" (p.137).
"There are two parts to the trend in control: first, there's the declining belief in personal responsibility and the efficacy of hard work and sacrifice... Then there's the fading idea that collective action will have an effect on politics, society, and the world" (p.140f.).
"Part of the reason young people are disengaged is that they don't pay much attention to the news. Less than 20% of young people read newspapers, and the average age of people watching CNN or the network evening news is around 60... Young people may be getting some news from the Internet, but most use the Web for specific interests instead (what media expert Nicholas Negroponte calls 'The Daily Me')" (p.141f.).
Neil Postman in The Death of Childhood: "From a child's point of view, what is mostly shown on television is the plain fact that the adult world is filled with ineptitude, strife, and worry" "It's just one part in the larger trend of 'kids growing up too fast.' Along with adult information and adult themes, they've also managed to absorb the cynicism that once came only with age. Some of this is simple self-protection brought on by information overload - much of it false and not to be believed" (p.146).
"Generation Me has also lost hope in our ability to make choices in our own lives. In some ways, these changed attitudes seem at odds with the focus on the self. If we see ourselves as independent individuals, why are we increasingly blaming others when things go wrong?" (p.147).
"Generation Me's external beliefs are somewhat ironic considering the better health and safety we enjoy. Our generation has never been drafted to fight in a war. Life expectancy is at an all-time high, and advances in medical technology and pharmaceuticals make our lives better" (p.149).
Charles Sykes in A Nation of Victims: "'...the impulse to flee personal responsibility and blame others [is] deeply embedded within the American culture... the plaintive cry is always the same: I am not at fault. [Fill in the Blank] made me do it.' Since the early 1990s, that blank has often been filled with 'my parents'" (p.151).
In many ways, thee extrenalizing and cynical beliefs are adaptive; they help protect the self-esteem of GenMe in an increasingly difficult world. But too much cynicism and alienation can be self-defeating... The startling growth of these attitudes goes a long way toward explaining the apathy and inaction so common today... Teens who have been told their whole lives that they are special will desperatly try to protect their self-esteem, and many will choose cynicism as their armor of choice" (p.156).
"On externality, the research is definitive. People who believe that outside forces determine their fate are more likely to be depressed and anxious and cope poorly with stress... Believing that you don't have control might be part of the reason. If nothing you do matters, it's easy to give in to lethargy and despair. Psychologists call it learned helplessness" (p.157).
"Externality also doesn't bode well for keeping it together and staying out of trouble. Perhaps because they don't think their actions will have consequences, externals have weakened self-control and an inability to delay gratification. They are less likely to work hard today to get a reward tomorrow - an especially important skill these days, when many good jobs require graduate degrees. Externality and low self-control are also correlated with the impulsive actions that tend to get young people into trouble, like shoplifting, fighting, or having unprotected sex" (p.157).
"The consequences for society as a whole are alarming. If everyone believes that nothing can be changed, that prophecy is likely to be self-fulfilling. And if we blame others for our problems, we might never make the changes we need to improve as people... As Robert Putnam argues in Bowling Alone, we are rapidly heading for a society low in the critical social capital it needs to grow. GenMe's concerns will be ignored if we do not get involved in politics and social change" (p.157).
QUESTIONS TO PONDER
1. Some would suggest that a sense of personal responsibility is a necessary life skill required to effectively navigate through the various spheres of life. In a culture that "blames others for their problems" (p.137), how does one cultivate this skill? How does a demotivated generation develop the self-efficacy required to master these skills?
2. Twenge suggests that there is a rapid growth in civic disengagement (p.141f.). She later suggests that this is a coping skill that is part of living in an information age where we are continuously bombarded with junk information (p.141-146). Is it possible that living with so much information has dulled discernment between good and bad information and fueled a culture of apathy?
3. Charles Sykes suggests that "the impulse to flee personal responsibility and blame others is deeply embedded within the American culture... the plaintive cry is always the same: I am not at fault. [Fill in the Blank] made me do it" (p.151). Twenge illustrates that parents, teachers and other authority figures are often the scapegoat upon which this blame is directed. How do authority figures learn how to cope with this finger-pointing without reacting in inappropriate ways? In what way can they serve as mentors that will cultivate greater responsibility?
4. What are the implications in regards to moral development when externality, low self-control, and impulsivity (p.157) tend to dominate the attitudes and actions of today's youth?
5. How can we help today's youth learn about the importance of social capital (p.157)?
Friday, July 06, 2007
Generation Me - Chapter 4
Jean Twenge has written a very interesting book studying today's youngest generation to have come of age. In these postings, I will begin to provide key quotes and references that have stood out to me. From that, I have posted a few questions for reflection. For more information on this book, I encourage you to explore her website: generationme.orgAlso see my article: Me, MySpace and iPod: Tales of a Culture Stuck in the Mirror Phase of Development and Its Moral Implications
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1:
YOU DON'T NEED THEIR APPROVAL: The Decline of Social Rules
CHAPTER 2:
AN ARMY OF ONE: Me
CHAPTER 3:
You Can Be Anything You Want to Be
CHAPTER 4:
The Age of Anxiety (and Depression, and Loneliness): Generation Stressed
NOTABLE QUOTES
"In past generations, suicide and depression were considered afflictions of middle age, as it was unusual for a young person to be depressed, but for Generation Me, these problems are a rite of passage through adolescence and young adulthood" (p.106).
"...when you were born has more influence on your anxiety level than your individual family environment... Generational differences explained about 20% of the variation in anxiety - thus four times more than family environment. So even if you come from a stable, loving family, growing up amidst the stress of recent times might be enough to make you anxious" (p.107).
"Someone commits suicide every eighteen minutes in the United States. While the suicide rate for middle-aged people has declined steeply since 1950, the suicide rate for young people has more than doubled... The suicide rate for children under age 14 has doubled just since 1980. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 24" (p.108).
"Our growing tendency to put self first leads to unparalleled freedom, but it also creates an enormous amount of pressure on us to stand alone. This is the downside of the focus on the self - when we are fiercely independent and self-sufficient, our disappointments loom large because we have nothing else to focus on. But it's not just us: Generation Me has been taught to expect more out of life at the very time when good jobs and nice houses are increasingly difficult to obtain. All too often, the result is crippling anxiety and crushing depression" (p.109).
"More than four times as many Americans describe themselves as lonely now than in 1957. In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam documents the steep decline in all kinds of social connections: we're less likely to belong to clubs and community organizations, less likely to have friends over to dinner, and less likely to visit our neighbors. Our social contacts are slight compared to those enjoyed by earlier generations" (p.110).
Political scientist, Robert Lane: "There is a kind of famine of warm interpersonal relations, of easy-to-reach neighbors, of encircling, inclusive memberships, and of solid family life... we're malnourished from eating a junk-food diet of instant messages, e-mail, and phone calls, rather than the healthy food of live, in-person interaction" (p.110).
"...almost half of GenMe has seen their parents divorce, or have never known their father at all. This has a clear link to the rise in depression, as children of divorce are more likely to be anxious and depressed" (p.111).
"GenMe marries later than any other previous generation. Though later marriage has some advantages, it also means that many in GenMe spend their twenties (and sometimes thirties) in pointless dating, uncertain relationships, and painful breakups. Many relationships last several years and/or involve living together, so the breakups resemble divorces rather than run-of-the-mill heartbreak (as if there were such a thing)" (p.112).
"The sadness of being alone is often the flip side of freedom and putting oneself first. When we pursue our own dreams and make our own choices, that pursuit often takes us away from friends and family. An independence-minded society such as ours would never accept rules that encouraged arranged marriage or multigenerational households. Even marriage before a certain age - these days, around 25 - is viewed as unwise and overly restricting. There is nothing wrong with individual freedom, of course; this is the advantage of social change of the last few decades. But there are consequences, and loneliness is often one of them" (p.115f.).
This is the scenario for young people today: To get a decent job, you must have a college degree, preferably from a good school. It is harder to get into a good college, and more expensive to pay for it. Once you get in and graduate, it is difficult to find a job. Once you find a job, corporate downsizing and restructuring create the constant threat of layoffs. By the time you're in your thirites, career pressures are compounded by the demands of raising children when both of you have to work to pay the bills" (p.120).
Tyler Durden in Fight Club: "Our generation has had no Great Depression, no Great War... Our depression is our lives... We were raised on television to believe that we'd all be millionaires, movie gods, rock stars, but we won't. And we're starting to figure it out..." (p.129).
"In some ways, the shift toward melancholy in young people seems paradoxical: Genreation Me has so much more than previous generations - we are healthier, enjoy countless modern conveniences, and are better educated. But Generation Me often lacks other basic human requirements: stable close relationships, a sense of community, a feeling of safety, a simple path to adulthood and the workplace. Our grandparents may have done without television and gone to the bathroom in an outhouse, but they were usually not lonely, scared by threats or terrorism, or obsessing about the best way to get into Princeton... Technology and material things may make life easier, but they do not seem to lead to happiness. Instead, we long for the social connections of past years, we enter a confusing world of too many choices, and we become depressed at younger and younger ages" (p.136).
THOUGHTS TO PONDER
1. Twenge states that "we're malnourished from eating a junk-food diet of instant messages, e-mail, and phone calls, rather than the healthy food of live, in-person interaction" (p.110). In what ways can authentic community be fostered to help nourish the need for relationship that this generation has?
2. Do you think that there is a direct link between the increase in suicide and the challenges of living with the ideals that are promoted as normal in both the media and everyday settings? Is it possible that the pressures of education, success, managing image, establishing oneself in society, etc. - has helped to fuel this extreme reaction?
3. With an increase in school violence and the ongoing threat of terrorism, do you sense that there is an ominous culture of fear that manifests itself on Nightly News, webpages, and the casual conversation of today's youth?
4. How has the definition of success shifted from GenMe and previous generations?
Generation Me - Chapter 3
Jean Twenge has written a very interesting book studying today's youngest generation to have come of age. In these postings, I will begin to provide key quotes and references that have stood out to me. From that, I have posted a few questions for reflection. For more information on this book, I encourage you to explore her website: generationme.org Also see my article: Me, MySpace and iPod: Tales of a Culture Stuck in the Mirror Phase of Development and Its Moral Implications
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1:
YOU DON'T NEED THEIR APPROVAL: The Decline of Social Rules
CHAPTER 2:
AN ARMY OF ONE: Me
CHAPTER 3:
You Can Be Anything You Want to Be
CHAPTER 1:
YOU DON'T NEED THEIR APPROVAL: The Decline of Social Rules
CHAPTER 2:
AN ARMY OF ONE: Me
CHAPTER 3:
You Can Be Anything You Want to Be
NOTABLE QUOTES
"Generation Me has always been taught that our thoughts and feelings are important. It's no surprise that students are now being tested on it. Even when schools, parents, and the media are not specifically targeting self-esteem, they promote the equally powerful concepts of socially sanctioned self-focus, the unquestioned importance of the individual, and an unfettered optimisim about young people's future prospects. This chapter explores the consequences of individualism that go beyond self-esteem, and all of the ways that we consciously and unconsciously train children to expect so much out of life" (p.72).
"Culture Shock! USA, a guidebook to American culture for foreigners, explains: 'Often one sees an American engaged in a dialogue with a tiny child. 'do you want to go home now?' says the parent. 'No,' says an obviously tired, crying child. An so parent and child continue to sit discontentedly in a chilly park. 'what is the matter with these people?' says the foreigner to himself, who can see the child is too young to make such decisions.' It's just part of American culture, the book says: 'The child is acquiring both a sense of responsibility for himself and a sense of his own importance' ...In most of the countries of the world, parents feel that their obligation is to raise an obedient child who will fit into society. The little ego must be molded into that of a well-behaved citizen. Not so here [in the U.S.]. ...the top priority is to raise an individual capable of taking advantage of opportunity" (p.75f.).
Educational psychologist, Michele Borba: "Too many parents subscribe to the myth that if you discipline children, you're going to break their spirit... The 'Me Generation' is raising the 'Me-Me-Me Generation'" (p.76).
"...another change from previous generations: the length of time GenMe has to pursue dreams. Because we expect to marry and have children later, it's more acceptable to spend your entire twenties pursuing 'dream' careers like music, screenwriting, or comedy. Jeffrey Arnett calls that period emerging adulthood, a time when 'no dreams have been permanently dashed, no doors have been firmly closed, every possibility for happiness is still alive. That period is getting longer and longer..." (p.83).
"...tattoos and nose rings might not be just random fashion trends after all. Instead, they are a medium for self-expression and the communication of individuality. The fit the generational trend perfectly: they are outward expressions of the inner self. They allow you to be different and unique. It's so important to be an indivdual, and to communicate that fact to others, that young people routinely tattoo it onto their skin" (p.97).
"Ask someone in GenMe when adulthood begins, and a surprising number will say 30. For this generation, your early twenties - and often your late twenties - are a time to move around, try different things, and date different people" (p.97).
"...Kids have much more spending power these days, and parents include them in many more consumer decisions... Materialism is the most obvious outcome of a straightforward, practical focus on the self: you want more things for yourself. You feel entitled to get the best in life: the best clothes, the best house, the best car. You're special; you deserve special things" (p.100).
"So many products now cater to the tastes of the individual. Instead of listening to the radio and hearing what everyone else does, we program our own special mix on our iPod, put in the headphones, and enter an individually created world. We even choose unique ring tones for our cell phones. Instead of three or four network stations, we can watch cable channels dedicated to our own interests. Instead of watching TV live with everyone else in our time zone, we TiVo it and warch it when we want to... Individualism has driven the increasingly large universe of consumer choice in other things as well... From clothing to cars to jewelry, consumer products are designed to exhibit the wants of the unique self. 'Shopping, like everything else, has become a means of self-exploration and self-expression,' writes David Brooks" (p.101).
THOUGHTS TO PONDER
1. This chapter addresses the socially constructed idea that everyone in America can have what Andy Warhol referred to as their "15 minutes of fame." Is it possible that we are fueling dreams so much in this generation that there is an absence of reality in their lives? Does this create a dellusional state of mind?
2. Aldous Huxley wrote the dystopian novel Brave New World. In it, youth are controlled and confined through the tantalizing prison of pleasure and dream-states. Is it possible that this "You Can Be Anything You Want to Be" message cultivates a spirit of bondage in our culture?
3. On page 90, Twenge uses the example of an associate pastor (Lucy) from the television show, 7th Heaven, to illustrate how even our models of Christian leadership fuel this self-love, self-esteem mindset. What are the practical and theological repurcussions of the Church fueling this idea? At what point does this become self-contradictory?
4. Twenge suggests that materialism is the inevitable outcome of self-focus (p.100). In what ways do the small concessions during childhood amplify the concessions made during adolescence and adulthood?
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Generation Me - Chapter 2
Jean Twenge has written a very interesting book studying today's youngest generation to have come of age. In these postings, I will begin to provide key quotes and references that have stood out to me. From that, I have posted a few questions for reflection. For more information on this book, I encourage you to explore her website: generationme.org Also see my article: Me, MySpace and iPod: Tales of a Culture Stuck in the Mirror Phase of Development and Its Moral Implications
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1:
YOU DON'T NEED THEIR APPROVAL: The Decline of Social Rules
CHAPTER 2:
AN ARMY OF ONE: Me
NOTABLE QUOTES
"["Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all" - Whitney Houston] ...is a stunning reversal in attitude from previous generations. Back then, respect for others was more important than respect for yourself. The term "self-esteem" wasn't widely used until the late 1960s, and didn't become talk-show and dinner-table conversation until the 1980s. By the 1990s, it was everywhere" (p.44).
"How did self-esteem transform from an obscure academic term to a familiar phrase that pops up in everything from women's magazines to song lyrics to celebrity interviews? ...[in th 1970s], the ascendance of the self truly exploded into the American consciousness. In contrast to previous ethics of honor and duty, Baby Boomer ideals focused instead on meaning and self fulfillment" (p.45)
"Generation Me had no need to reincarnate ourselves; we were born into a world that already celebrated the individual. The self-focus that blossomed in the 1970s became mundane and commonplace over the next two decades, and GenMe accepts it like a fish accepts water" (p.49).
"Psychologist Martin Seligman says that the traditional self - responsible, hardworking, stern - has been replaced with the "California self," a self that chooses, feels pleasure and pain, dictates action and even has things like esteem, efficacy, and confidence" (p.50f.).
THE SELF ACROSS THE GENERATIONS (p.50)
BABY BOOMERS
> Self-fulfillment
> Journey, potentials, searching
> Change the world
> Protests and group sessions
> Abstraction
> Spirituality
> Philosophy of Life
GENERATION ME
> Fun
> Already there
> Follow your dreams
> Watching TV and surfing the web
> Practicality
> Things
> Feeling good about yourself
"In the years after 1980, there was a pervasive, society-wide effort to increase children's self-esteem. The Boomers who now filled the ranks of parents apparently decided that children should always feel good about themselves" (p.53).
"...the implicit message is that self-esteem can be taught and should be taught... children are encouraged to believe that it is acceptable and desirable to be preoccupied with oneself [and] praise oneself. In many cases... it's not kust encouraged, but required. These exercises make self-importance mandatory, demanding of children that they love themselves..." (p.56, quoting John Hewitt).
"Maureen Stout notes, many educational psychologists believe that schools should be 'places in which children are insulated from the outside world and emotionally - not intellectually - nourished... My colleagues always referred to the importance of making kids feel good about themselves but rarely, if ever, spoke of achievement, ideals, goals, character, or decency.' The future teachers whom Sourt was educating believed that 'children shouldn't be challenged to try things that others in the class are not ready for, since that would promote competition, and competition is bad for self-esteem" (p.64).
"...research shows that when people with high self-esteem are criticized, they became unfriendly, rude, and uncooperative, even toward people who had nothing to do with the criticism" (p.65)
"Martin Seligman has criticized self-esteem programs as empty and shortsighted. He argues that self-esteem based on nothing does not serve children well in the long run; it's better, he says, for children to develop real skills and feel good about accomplishing something... Self-esteem is an outcome, not a cause. In other words, it doesn't do much good to encourage a child to feel good about himself just to feel good; this doesn't mean anything. Children develop true self-esteem from behaving well and accomplishing things" (p.66).
"Kids who are given meaningless A's and promoted when they haven't learned the material will later find out in college or the working world that they don't know much at all. And what will that do to their self-esteem, or, more important, their careers?" (p.68)
"Narcissists are overly focused on themselves and lack empathy for others, which means they cannot see another person's perspective... They also feel entitled to special privileges and believe that they are superior to other people. As a result, narcissists are bad relationship partners and can be difficult to work with. Narcissists are also more likely to be hostile, feel anxious, compromise their health, and fight with friends and family. Unlike those merely high in self-esteem, narcissists admit that they don't feel close to other people... Narcissism is the darker side of the focus on the self, and is often confused with self-esteem. Self-esteem is often based on solid relationships with others, whereas narcissism comes from believing that you are special and more important than other people" (p.68-70).
"Many young people alse display entitlement, a facet of narcissism that involves believing that you deserve and are entitled to more than others... The rise in narcissism has very deep roots. It's not just that we feel better about ourselves, but that we even think to ask the question. We fixate on self-esteem, and unthinkingly build narcissism, because we believe that the needs of the individual are paramount. This will stay with us even if the self-esteem programs end up in the dustbin of history..." (p.70f.)QUESTIONS TO PONDER
1. How does the version of self-esteem that Twenge discusses in this chapter differ from a strong sense of self? (see Martin Seligman's contrast of 'traditional- and California-self, p.50f.)2. In the 1960s, Boomers were referred to as "the 'Me' Generation," but Twenge suggests that this was more temporary fad during the adolescence period. It isn't until the 1990s that the true Generation Me emerges (p.50). In what ways do these two generations differ? Is it possible that one generation are immigrants while the other are natives to these narcissistic tendencies?
3. One of the philosophical implications of the self-esteem movement was to "make kids feel good about themselves' rather than speaking of achievement, ideals, goals, character, or decency" (p.64). At what point does the need to make a student 'feel good' get in the way of truly preparing people for the future? (see on p.64 the "Kids who are given meaningless As..." quote)4. What are the consequences of leaving a 'mindset of entitlement' (p.70) unchallenged?
SUPPLEMENTAL AIDS FOR THIS CHAPTER
Parenting Magazine - Proud to be me!
Tom Wolfe
Article - The Me Decade and the Third Great Awakening
Steve Gillon
Book - Boomer Nation: The Largest and Richest Generation Ever, and How It Changed America
David Brooks
Book - Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
Wikipedia - Bobos in Paradise
Jerry Rubin
Book - Growing Up at 37
CNN - New Age Mystic to Become Mom at 57
Alexandra Robbins
Book - Conquering Your Quarter-Life Crisis
Emily Griffin
Book - Something Borrowed
Thomas Patterson
Article - Doing Well and Doing Good: How Soft News and Critical Journalism Are Shrinking the News Audience and Weakening Democracy - And What New Outlets Can Do About It
USA Weekend
Report - 11th Annual Special Teen Report: Teens and Self-Image: Survey Results
Albert Ellis
Book - The Myth of Self-Esteem: How Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy Can Change Your Life Forever
Diane Loomans
Book - The Lovables in the Kingdom of Self-Esteem
Maureen Stout
Book - The Feel-Good Curriculum: The Dumbing Down of America's Kids in the Name of Self-Esteem
Article - The Danger of Self-Esteem Programs
Global Ideas Bank
Article - Magic Circle to Enhance Child's Self-Esteem
William B. Swan
Book - Self-Traps: The Elusive Quest for Higher Self-Esteem
Lauren Murphy Payne
Book - A Leader's Guide to Just Because I Am: A Child's Book of Affirmation
Rita Kramer
Book - Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America's Teachers
Nancy Gibbs
TIME Magazine Article - Parents Behaving Badly
Max Lucado
Book - You Are Special
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