Skin We're In, the

Zusatztext James Comer, M.D. Yale Child Study Center, coauthor of Raising Black Children Powerful and riveting! The reader is engaged on every page as Dr. Janie Victoria Ward tackles the tough issues associated with black child development in a complexsociety...Solid and eminently practical. Informationen zum Autor Janie Victoria Ward, Ed.D., is associate professor of education and human services at Simmons College in Boston, and coeditor with Carol Gilligan of Mapping the Moral Domain. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her son. Klappentext Shepherding children through the demanding years of adolescence can be a struggle for any parent. But black parents must also help their children confront the psychological fallout of racism. With this in mind, Dr. Janie Ward, who spent fifteen years researching the moral and psychological development of African-American boys and girls, offers parents a comprehensive four-step program -- Name it, Read it, Oppose it, Replace it -- that provides strategies for healthy resistance to negative social influences and complacency in children throughout the formative years. Ward offers parents advice on such topics as: * Helping boys deal with and control emotions like anger, frustration, and fear * Encouraging girls to appreciate their growing bodies for more than just looks, and to develop a healthy sense of identity * Developing skills in teens that allow them to act effectively in social, academic, and business settings * Teaching children to resist the power of peer pressure from those in their communities who believe there is only one way to be black * Convincing teens that it is essential to develop their spirituality and participate in a spiritual community Leseprobe Introduction It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -- FREDERICK DOUGLASS Just a handful of years ago we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The footage that television news shows broadcast to commemorate the event was dated, of course, but the black children's faces, suffused with courage, dignity, determination, and spirit as they climbed the school steps toward equal education, opportunity, and justice, transcend time. As I watched them I wondered if, as a child, I would have been able to muster the kind of strength and hope that moved those children forward, through the phalanx of state troopers, past the godless gaze of white supremacists, into history. I wondered if I could marshal the courage now, as an adult. I wondered, too, if we, as African Americans, have lived up to the dream that the Little Rock children held so close as they mounted those steps. Have we done all that we can? What have we done wrong? Can we right it? What have we done right? Can we do it better? How can we best help our youth to be strong, self-confident, and resilient? How can we fortify them to resist racism when they experience it firsthand and when they witness discrimination against others? Black parents across the country struggle with these questions every day. And every day they invent new ways to help their children feel confident of their racial identity -- both personally and as part of the African American community -- and to recognize and name racism and oppose it in healthy ways. With a confidence born of their own childhoods and shaped by their experiences in the civil rights movement, they are teaching their children to be strong and resilient, and to stand up for what is right and against what is wrong. They are fusing what their own parents taught them with "black folks' truth," the collective wisdom of African Americans. And they are refining, adapting, and reinforcing that knowledge to help their own children counter the obstacles and pressures they face today, including covert racism -- at school, in the workplace, and in...

Product details

• Authors: Janie Victoria Ward
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2008
• EAN: 9780684859293
• ISBN: 978-0-684-85929-3
• No. of pages: 312
• Subject: Guides > Self-help, everyday life > Lifestyle, personal development