The History of Child Abuse

The History of Child Abuse: The following speech was given at the National Parenting Conference in Boulder, Colorado, on September 25, 1997.

During the past three decades, I have spent much of my scholarly life examining primary sources such as diaries, autobiographies, doctor's reports, ethnographic reports and other documents that document what it must have felt like to have been a child--yesterday and today, in the East and the West, in literate and preliterate cultures.

In several hundred studies published by myself and my associates in The Journal of Psychohistory, we have provided extensive evidence that the history of childhood has been a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken. The further back in history one goes--and the further away from the West one gets--the more massive the neglect and cruelty one finds and the more likely children are to have been killed, rejected, beaten, terrorized and sexually abused by their caretakers.

Childhood being eroded by modern life, experts warn - Telegraph#.Tn40cAOOr00.facebook#.Tn40cAOOr00.facebook#.Tn40cAOOr00.facebook

Childhood being eroded by modern life, experts warn - Telegraph#.Tn40cAOOr00.facebook#.Tn40cAOOr00.facebook#.Tn40cAOOr00.facebook: In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, the group of academics, teachers, authors and charity leaders says children’s wellbeing and mental health is being undermined by the pressures of modern life. They urge the Government to address a culture of “too much, too soon” in Britain.
This includes a ban on all forms of advertising aimed at the youngest children, the establishment of a play-based curriculum for infants and a public information campaign warning of the dangers of screen-based entertainment.

ADHD Misdiagnosed In Nearly 1 Million U.S. Kids Say Researchers

ADHD Misdiagnosed In Nearly 1 Million U.S. Kids Say Researchers: "Two studies published recently suggest there could be something wrong with the way ADHD is diagnosed in young children in the US, one found that nearly 1 million kids are potentially misdiagnosed just because they are the youngest in their kindergarten year, with the youngest in class twice as likely to be on stimulant medication, while the other study confirmed that whether children were born just before or just after the kindergarten cutoff date significantly affected their chances of being diagnosed with ADHD."

Authoritarian behaviour leads to insecure people, Spanish study finds

Authoritarian behaviour leads to insecure people, Spanish study finds: "Researchers from the University of Valencia (UV) have identified the effects of the way parents bring up their children on social structure in Spain. Their conclusions show that punishment, deprivation and strict rules impact on a family's self esteem."

The Revolutionary Optimists - ITVS

The Revolutionary Optimists - ITVS: "Amlan Ganguly empowers children to become activists and educators, with powerful results. The Revolutionary Optimists follows him as he attempts to replicate his work in the brick fields outside the city, where children live and work in unimaginable conditions."

TED Blog | The child-driven education: Sugata Mitra on TED.com

TED Blog | The child-driven education: Sugata Mitra on TED.com: "Education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education — the best teachers and schools don’t exist where they’re needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2010, July 2010 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 17:14)"

Raise Your Kids Right: What to Say Instead of Praising | BlogHer

Raise Your Kids Right: What to Say Instead of Praising | BlogHer: "'What kids do need is unconditional support, love with no strings attached. That’s not just different from praise –- it’s the opposite of praise. 'Good job!' is conditional. It means we’re offering attention and acknowledgment and approval for jumping through our hoops, for doing things that please us.' -- Alfie Kohn"