Childhood Studies

Regardless of how wealthy or poor their parents are, all black boys must confront and surmount the "achievement gap": a divide that shows up not only in our sons' test scores, but in their social and emotional development, their physical well-being, and their outlook on life. As children, they score as high on cognitive tests as their peers, but at some point, the gap emerges. Why? This is the question Joe Brewster, M.D., and Michele Stephenson asked when their own son, Idris, began struggling in a new school.

Screenwise offers a realistic and optimistic perspective on how to thoughtfully guide kids in the digital age. Many parents feel that their kids are addicted, detached, or distracted because of their digital devices. Using the foundation of their own values and experiences, parents and educators can learn about the digital world to help set kids up for success in a world fueled by technology.

The social perception of masculinity is very black and white: one is either an alpha male or a beta male, and there can be no variation. However, this is not the reality of masculinity in today's society. Non-alpha males exist somewhere in the middle of the masculinity spectrum and are far more common than most people realize.

Recently graduated from Harvard University, Michelle Kuo arrived in the rural town of Helena, Arkansas, as a Teach for America volunteer, bursting with optimism and drive. But she soon encountered the jarring realities of life in one of the poorest counties in America, still disabled by the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. In this stirring memoir, Kuo, the child of Taiwanese immigrants, shares the story of her complicated but rewarding mentorship of one student, Patrick Browning.

Learning about the Bible is more fun and engaging than ever! The best-selling Read with Me Bible, NIrV provides early listeners ages four-eight with 106 easy-to-relisten Bible stories from the Old and New Testaments. Children love it. Parents trust it. Easy to listen and easy to understand, the Read with Me Bible, NIrV will quickly become your child’s favorite Bible, as it has for thousands and thousands of other children. The Read with Me Bible, NIrV will instill a love of God’s Word in your child as they snuggle up and listen to it with you.

In this profoundly significant book, author Michael Gurian synthesizes current knowledge and clearly demonstrates how this distinction in hard-wiring and socialized gender differences affects how boys and girls learn. Gurian presents a new way to educate our children based on brain science, neurological development, and chemical and hormonal disparities.

Tracking deep into our evolutionary history, anthropological science has begun to unravel one particular feature that sets us apart from the many, many animals that came before us—our uniquely long childhoods. Growing Up Human looks at how we have diverged from our ancestral roots to stay ‘forever young’—or at least what seems like forever—and how the evolution of childhood is a critical part of the human story.

At 15, Victor Rios found himself a human target - flat on his ass amid a hail of shotgun fire, desperate for money and a place on the street. Faced with the choice of escalating a drug turf war or eking out a living elsewhere, he turned to a teacher, who mentored him and helped him find a job at an auto shop. That job would alter the course of his whole life - putting him on the road to college and eventually a PhD.

In a smart, entertaining, reassuring book that reads like fiction, Alexandra Robbins manages to cross Gossip Girl with Freaks and Geeks and explain the fascinating psychology and science behind popularity and outcasthood. She reveals that the things that set students apart in high school are the things that help them stand out later in life.

Our society is riddled with men behaving badly. Sexual harassment, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and misogyny run rampant through politics, Hollywood, professional and amateur sports, college campuses, and our daily work environment. Change happens when parents embody and model what they want to see in their children. The nine lessons presented in Dissolving Toxic Masculinity are designed to help us raise boys who embrace an attitude of compassion, empathy, kindness, and respect for women. It's time we rise to the challenge.

Does what it says on the tin. Top 10 tips for hitting the ground running for trainee teachers, newly qualified teachers, and teachers everywhere.

I think there is real hope to be found, in the middle of our deepest traumas, in the good news about Jesus Christ. I also think that there is a place for us to find hope and community within the church. Because of these two beliefs, I truly think, distant though it may be, that we may even get to a place of peace within our souls and a place of forgiveness for those who hurt us so much.

When Claire Hoffman's alcoholic father abandons his family, his desperate wife, Liz, tells five-year-old Claire and her seven-year-old brother, Stacey, that they are going to heaven - Iowa - to live in Maharishi's national headquarters for Heaven on Earth. For Claire's mother, Transcendental Meditation - the Maharishi's method of meditation and his approach to living the fullest possible life - was a salvo that promised world peace and enlightenment just as their family fell apart.

The extraordinary memoir of a childhood spent in the 'Children of God' cult. Rebel tells the story of Faith, a woman who grew up in the Children of God cult (known latterly as The Family). Now in her 40s with two teenage children of her own, Faith's first-person narrative alternates between her childhood adventures and traumas within the cult and her post-cult life following her escape at the age of 19.

The experience of riding a yellow school bus has undergone significant changes in the past few decades. With the advent of technology and the increasing use of smartphones and other electronic devices, drivers now face a multitude of distractions. Additionally, the behavior of students on the bus has also evolved, with students often engaging in loud conversations, playing music, or even watching videos without headphones, which can be a significant distraction for the driver.

A healthy Earth requires healthy children. Yet nearly one-fourth of the world’s children are stunted physically and mentally due to a lack of food or nutrients. During the past 30 years, says Sharman Russell, we have seen a revolution in how we treat these sick children and in how - with a new understanding of the human body and approach to nutrition, and new ways to reach out to hungry mothers and babies - we have gone from unwittingly killing severely malnourished children to bringing them back to health through the “miracle” of ready-to-eat therapeutic food.

Note: This is a summary and analysis of the book and not the original book. With 1962's Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life, Philippe Ariès didn't just produce the first history of childhood. He also helped popularize the idea that history should focus on ordinary people. Studying the demographic and cultural evolution of modern society was his life's work, and this book was his most significant contribution.

For American children raised exclusively in wartime - that is, a Cold War containing monolithic communism turned hot in the jungles of Southeast Asia - and the first to grow up with televised combat, Vietnam was predominately a mediated experience. Walter Cronkite was the voice of the conflict, and grim, nightly statistics the most recognizable feature. But as involvement grew, Vietnam affected numerous changes in child life, comparable to the childhood impact of previous conflicts - chiefly the Civil War and World War II - whose intensity and duration also dominated American culture.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history. Contents: Henry J Heinz, the man who invented tomato ketchup; William Lever, who made millions from soap; Michael Marks, founder of the Marks and Spencer stores; Henry Ford, who mass produced cars and made them affordable; Coco Chanel, the businesswoman who changed fashion for women; Ray Kroc, the man who created the McDonald's chain of restaurants.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history. Contents: Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who started a bank which made his family rich; Cornelius Vanderbilt, who became one of the richest people in the USA; W. K. Kellogg, who started the world's biggest cereal company; Elizabeth Arden, who built the Elizabeth Arden cosmetics company; Walt Disney, who started the famous entertainment company; Soichiro Honda, who started the Honda motorbike and car company.