READY OR NOT Why Treating Children as Small Adults Endangers Their Future--and Ours

Using lucid examples mainly from academic research and sociocultural criticism, Hymowitz describes how kids today are expected to make too many life decisions without the safety net of adult guidance and direction. She says this parenting style fails to help children navigate in a frighteningly wide-open world. With appropriate seriousness, Ruth Ann Phimister narrates this well-crafted essay, which reaches far and wide to explain the parenting vacuum the author is worried about. Adroitly explained without too much hand-wringing or finger-pointing, this balanced and intellectual work will make all thinking parents reevaluate what they're expecting of their children. T.W. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 03]