InnerSelf

by Johann Christoph Arnold.

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.  Vast numbers of children are endangered by a one-sided approach that sees them solely in terms of their ability to be fruitful -- that is, to achieve and succeed.

by Dr. Brenda Davies.

Don't be hard on yourself or anyone else, but see that some of these games have been handed down for centuries like family heirlooms. Every one of them can be righted, and often the first major step is to recognize them and refuse to...

by Montel Williams and Jeffrey Gardère, Ph.D.

Despite all of the hours you will spend in conference with professional educators in the years ahead, never lose sight of the fact that you are your children's most important teacher. You are their first line of attack and their last line of defense against indifference and routine in your neighborhood schools.

by Lee Carroll & Jan Tober.

Anger is at a high level, mostly due to the frustration of a generation of parents and educators who feel that they've done their best, but that something has slipped between the cracks. We continue to believe that the core answer to the phenomenon...

by Johann Christoph Arnold. For years, psychologists, educators and church leaders have warned about subversive and decadent influences on children in our society. In my books on parenting, I have pointed to these dangers and suggested that the greatest trap is not anger or abhorrence, but indifference.

by John Taylor Gatto.

Two institutions at present control our children's lives: television and schooling, in that order. In centuries past, the time of childhood and adolescence would have been occupied in real work, real charity, real adventures, and the realistic search for mentors who might teach what you really wanted to learn.

GOD, IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT TODAY'S SOCIETY, WHAT WOULD IT BE? -- Peter, 15 yrs old -- I would change your beliefs about who you are, and who I am, and how life is. I would cause you to notice that you and I are One, that you are likewise one with everything and everyone else...

by John Taylor Gatto. For a while I think we need to make community service a required part of schooling. Besides the experience in acting unselfishly that it will teach, it is the quickest way to give young children real responsibility in the mainstream of life.

by Johann Christoph Arnold.

One of the oldest pieces of advice for families is the Fifth Commandment of Moses: 'Honor your father and your mother,' which continues, 'that your days may be long in the land...' This is the only one of the Ten Commandments that includes a blessing and a promise.

What is it about saying, flat out, 'I love you' to our children that has been shunned by many and may still constitute a taboo among middle-aged parents today? Novels, movies, indeed most cultures invest 'I love you' with strong erotic content. The deep, romantic, feeling-tone of the phrase reinforces the taboo...

by Daisaku Ikeda.

Our youth, to whom we will entrust the twenty-first century, look upon neither their future nor their world with bright hope. This is why I feel compelled to discuss the problems of our youth, particularly in the advanced industrialized nations...

by Lorna Wing, M.D.

Parents have to cope with a series of problems, some of which are practical and some of which are emotional. The parents of any child with a long-term disability have to undergo a change of attitude when they first learn the truth and this is a painful process. They may have feelings of guilt, which are a waste of mental energy that can be turned to better use.

by Robert Rabbin.

During the first few months of 2003, I was taught something remarkable by 123 children, from 2 to 13 years of age. There is something remarkable about kids: they experience life in a way that expresses deep and profound wisdom. Their wisdom is born of their own connection to life and to living things.

by Noelle C. Nelson, Ph.D. & Jeannine Lemare Calaba, Psy.D.

   How do you help your child achieve a positive sense of worth? By teaching him how to appreciate himself. Do this by: 1. First, no matter how your child is behaving, find something within him to value and be grateful for. 2. Then, point out to your child the specific quality or action you are appreciating about him.

by John Izzo, Ph.D. Children seem able to find wonder in the simplest of things -- an unusual bug on the sidewalk, a puddle that is particularly deep, a small paper airplane. As we age, somehow our capacity for awe and wonder is diminished, just as our skin loses its elasticity. So how do we recapture the experience of wonder?

by Susan Winston.

Twenty-four of us sat nervously on unforgiving wooden benches. It was a day of mixed emotions. We all knew that behind our own personal happiness was a deeply disturbing practice here in China, a quiet genocide that yearly claims the lives of thousands of female babies and children. This was the day my husband, Jim, and I were to adopt our daughter, Nikki Kate Winston.

by Doreen Virtue Ph.D.

 Children are often perfectionists, and they can be very hard on themselves. One of the reasons why they become aggressively defensive when you scold them is that they're already painfully aware that they've made a mistake. Help your children understand...

by Morton & Barbara Kelsey

Let's look at some concrete examples of how parental attitudes tend to shape children's sexual identities. Certainly the lack of emotional affection and touch in many homes causes some youngsters to fail to relate sexuality and affection and such parental modeling can cause later sexual confusion. How parents treat the sexual interests and play of children can also have a profound effect upon the adult lives of those children.

by Dean Van Leuven.

We use anger in disciplining our children because we become upset by what they do, and we then become angry. We then tend to mix our anger in with the lessons we are trying to teach the child. But when we mix the 'lesson' with our anger, we end up teaching our child that it's okay to respond with anger to things that upset us. When we respond with anger, the child learns anger.

by Thom Hartmann.

Individuals with ADHD may be our most creative individuals, our most extraordinary thinkers, our most brilliant inventors and pioneers. The children among us whom our teachers and psychiatrists say are 'disordered' may, in fact, carry a set of abilities -- a skill set -- that was necessary for the survival of humanity in the past, that has created much of what we treasure in our present 'quality of life,' and that will be critical to the survival of the human race in the future.

by Susan Jeffers, Ph.D. Certainly, in our role as parents, teachers, or care-givers, we watch as our children are shaken up by the inescapable barrage of scary news involving death, bombs, enemies, and the like. They are frightened and confused?

by Marie T. Russell. "The meek shall inherit the earth..." . Those of us raised in the Christian faith know this statement well. And for many of us, myself included, it was interpreted to mean that we should bite our tongue, hold our peace, and not rock the boat.

by Sobonfu E.Somé.

In Africa, it is understood that children hold the knowledge and gifts that ensure the survival of the village and the tribe. In essence, the child is the king of the village. When a child walks into the middle of a crowd, all attention goes to him or her as if to applaud an arrival long awaited. Children complete the community!