This paper examines how some Swedish parents constructed meanings of parenthood. The parents had completed a state-sponsored parenting programme and were interviewed about their experiences of the programme, their everyday lives, their need for support, ideas about the societal context, and their understandings of "good" and…

Popular culture today characterizes middle-class parents as being consumed with anxiety about their children. Drawing on more than 100 consumer reviews of baby monitors published on Epinions.com, the author examines how parents respond to that anxiety. Although Epinions.com reviewers are not representative of the population at large, they do…

Suggests differences between the social contexts of English informal and American open education. (DS)

Discusses the need for educators, school librarians, and authors of adolescent literature to provide literature which is at once entertaining and educational for young adults. Some current social factors affecting the emotional and intellectual development of adolescents, including permissive family environments and the impact of television, are…

Wayland wrote what is arguably the most influential nineteenth-century moral philosophy text. This article examines the Calvinist tradition, from which Wayland diverged; explores his views as they relate to the home and school; and describes his impact on the formation of the middle class of his day. (IAH)

Since the 1950s, parenting and childhood in America have changed dramatically. Childhood as a period in which to grow at one's own pace in a protected environment largely removed from adult supervision has given way to a new era in which the parent acts as supervisor and director of the child's development. Such involvement, especially by middle…

This paper describes a study comparing the development of children reared in a communal environment with that of children from upper-middle-class home environments. Variables considered were cognitive development and academic achievement. Subjects consisted of 39 children, 2 1/2 to 6 1/2 years of age, reared communally from birth, and 39…