The Vulnerable Child: What Really Hurts America's Children And What We Can Do About It

by Richard Weissbourd

Overview

0-8133-1027-X the Soviet Nationality Reader: the Disintegration in Context

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780201920802
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	03/24/1997
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1380L (what's this?)

About the Author

Richard Weissbourd teaches at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and at its Graduate School of Education. He has been an advisor on family policy at the city, state, and federal level, and his writing has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The New Republic, and The American Prospect. He lives with his wife and three children in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

Beginning in the 1980s, Weissbourd, a family issues expert, interviewed and spent time with the disadvantaged children and their families whose stories presented here shatter monolithic concepts of poverty and an underclass. In positioning poor children as distinct individuals, often poor at only some point in their lives, Weissbourd demonstrates that poverty hurts children in a range of subtle ways that have nothing to do with neglect or abuse. He states, moreover, that ``a good deal of evidence suggests that most vulnerable children are not poor.'' His research indicates that such parenting deficits as depression, stress and community isolation often punish children, who become scapegoats or assume other negative roles. The chain of interactions that makes a child vulnerable is followed with compassion in this challenging report, which ``shows that children are not typically doomed because of poverty, or other risk factors at early ages.'' An important advisory for all in service of children. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Harvard-affiliated Weissbourd includes snippets of troubled children's (and parents') lives to enhance the theme of this solid work, that there is no simple circumstance (low income, single parent) that gives rise to a disadvantaged childhood. What does commonly exist in such an environment is a poverty of knowledge about children and their development, a failure to understand the interrelation of family and community circumstances. Weissbourd identifies institutions he feels well positioned to develop and practice informed holistic programs to salvage children at risk: schools, child protective services, police, and community officials. Boston's South End Community Center, Hawaii's Healthy Start, New Haven, Connecticut's Lincoln Bassett Elementary School, and South Carolina's Resource Mothers program are cited as examples of efforts that work. Policymakers, government representatives, educators, and social workers could attend to this thoughtful and reasoned argument, perhaps to the benefit of more than the children. Recommended for academics, professionals, and the general public.-Suzanne W. Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Alfred

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