Ready or Not: Why Treating Children as Small Adults Endangers Their Future--And Ours

by Kay S. Hymowitz

Book Overview

Is the experience of childhood endangered? A leading voice on social issues offers startling evidence that it may be--unless we can stop treating our children as "small adults." This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684836246
• ISBN13: 9780684836249
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Changed the way I see kids and how adults respond to them

I haven't finished this book, so I can't say that it ends the way I want it to. (With ideas on how to combat the anticultural movement.) But, I can say that the first few chapters changed my way of thinking about kids, education and the media. I can't go a day without something happening that illustrates what this author is talking about. I want to give this to all my teacher friends and make them read it. I think this book is a must for parents, administrators and teachers.

a knockout book

This book will give you straight answers and no educratese, no vague generalities, no junkspeak. Anybody who has spent time in a high school classroom needs answers, and this book has them. I have long wondered where the attitude that kids can raise themselves came from; the mindless idea that all children need is love, heavy warm eye contact, strokes, and flattery to develop them into mature adults; that children will always choose what is best for them --- in clothing, food, activities and entertainment --- if only stupid adults would stand aside. This book discusses that wierd, wierd, wierd idea. The reviewer who says that youth crime and violence is the same as in 1970 I suspect is simply prevaricating. But the idea that letting young people have anything they want --- or know to want --- is a wise parenting and teaching strategy has thoroughly permeated the society. Our local newspaper yesterday came out with an article about how parents are finding it difficult to say 'no' to ten-year-old girls who want to dress like streetwalkers in tube tops and jeans that show their navels. Maybe that's why certain male intellectuals cling to the idea; they just might love seeing those little girls in tube tops. Hmmmmmm? The idea that young people are self-regulating devices seems to have soaked in at all levels and all cultures in this country. This books tells us where that idea came from and why certain people are busy disseminating it. It's a branch or sub-genre of Romanticism, the myth of the Noble Savage, and all the silly pastoralism that goes along with it. People who subscribe most determinedly to anticulturalism do so because they like to think of themselves as superior in kindness and refinement and insightto those who have a grip on reality. They are also lazy. It takes work to say No. Read this book!

Great Overview Book

Hymowitz has provided a great overview of our current cultural syndrome. Unlike Kirkus, I do not think "anticulture" thesis is a strawman. Instead I find it to be a fascinating and effective description of the phenomena parents fight (or ignore) on a daily basis. The culturaly elite perspective (which permeates the Kirkus review) takes a deserved beating. I have placed this book on my website recommend list bookshelf because I think this book will help intellegent parents discern the background that drives and intensifies their parenting concerns. Good Work! Dear Mrs. Web

Excellent presentation

This book by Kay Hymowitz is excellent and should be read by all parents and educators. It explains just how far society has strayed from giving our children the guidance they need to succeed.I picked up the book with the hope of understanding some of the disturbing changes in the students entering graduate school. I was not disappointed.The author's insight, views and interpretations of the ideas and the events taking place in our society and how they are affecting the current generations are right on the mark. All the consequences discussed by Ms. Hymowitz confront me every day. Most notable is the general lack of maturity and discipline in their lives. This lack of discipline extends from their social behavior and dress to their study habits and commitment to learning. Preparing for a professional career takes desire, dedication and hard work. To many students this is a foreign concept. They are truly lost souls, and "Ready or Not" by Kay Hymowitz explains extremely well why this is so.