Young people from working-class backgrounds are feeling increasingly insecure in school, and for good reasons. The institution of schooling is being converted into an instrument of neoliberal control. In this paper, I discuss how schools are becoming increasingly insecure places for working-class young people, and how they are responding, and I do…

Welcoming address to a candlelighting ceremony at the Washington, D.C. Childhood Education Center celebrating the International Year of the Child 1979, and sponsored by the Assocaition for Childhood Education International. (SS)

My responsibilities for the Future of School Psychology Conference were twofold. First, I was to discuss the critical issues that children face or will face as we move into the 2000s. My second task was to propose roles for school psychology, within the constraints of the shortage, to address these issues.

The use of realism is valuable in children's literature when it fulfills these requirements: the subject is familiar to children; the characters are convincing; and the story is interesting, presents a hopeful solution, and deals courageously with the issues that touch the lives of the young readers. Relevant realism responds to the curiosity,…

A study of school principals in the Mississippi delta area of Arkansas explored principals' perceptions of violence in school, and their feelings towards the necessity of violence-prevention programs. Questionnaires were mailed to 292 principals of elementary, middle, and high schools, and 239 responded (81.8 percent). Of the responses, there were…

The size of the runaway and throwaway population is alarming. Two primary reasons explain why programs for adolescent runaways have failed and each one is embedded historically in American culture. The first is that strict discipline and reform have been seen throughout history as the most appropriate manner by which to control youth. The second…

The Youth Crisis Network (YCN) is an alliance of human service agencies and school systems located in northwestern Connecticut that share a mutual concern about suicidal youth and other youth in crisis. The YCN provides system networking, coordination, collaboration, and advocacy aimed at developing quality services for youth at risk and youth in…

For homeless children, assuming responsibility for their own survival is an act of self-empowerment. However, society tends to see these children as victims to be rescued, delinquents who need to be disciplined, or else they are ignored. These views deny the resourcefulness of children who survive under these conditions. A study was conducted of…

Nebraska's Omaha Magic Theatre (OMT) and playwright Megan Terry are concerned with producing socially relevant, issue-oriented musical plays, focusing on young people and the adults who influence their emotional lives. OMT's "Theatre of Process" focuses upon the performing artist to develop and test ways to make theater more meaningful,…

Literature concerning problems that result from teenage pregnancy is synthesized and reviewed. The first section briefly compares rates of pregnancy among adolescents in the United States against those of other countries. This comparison is discussed in greater detail in the second section, which focuses on pregnancy rates in Connecticut and the…

This paper addresses the concept of child advocacy as a service strategy for troubled youth, particularly juvenile delinquents. The shortcomings of more traditional approaches to these youth and the concomitant recommendations for the use of advocacy are reviewed. The lack of clearly specified operating principles and techniques for advocacy…

In this paper, Arthur Jefferson, the Executive Director of the Office of Criminal Justice Plans and Analysis, discusses crime in the black community and its effect on the black family. The literature on the impact of crime on the black family is not extensive; however, there is considerable information concerning crime in the black community in…

One unintended consequence of juvenile diversion may be that diversion programs widen the net of justice system control, rather than divert youth from the system. This issue was examined in a group of youths who were randomly assigned to either the Adolescent Diversion Project (ADP) or to a control group who received services as usual by the court…

This report is an evaluation of the Youth Crisis Center program run by the Wichita, Kansas Children's Service League to provide crisis counseling services to status offenders. Two major objective of the program were to reduce the number of adjudicated status offenders in Sedgwick County, Kansas; and to reduce placement of such youth in locked…

The HEW National Strategy for Youth Development Model is promoted as a community-based planning and procedural tool designed to enhance positive youth development and prevent delinquency. To investigate the relationship between the percentage of youths endorsing particular needs and problems and the relative predictiveness these items bear on…