Kids These Days

This book focuses on early childhood to late teen issues like kidnapping and child safety, childhood obesity, school safety and zero tolerance policies, teen drivers, hazing, bullying and risk-taking behavior. Fear of and fear for youth is a rite of passage, a common lament that comes with change. Young people both represent and must deal with the consequences of these fluctuations, and are actually often better behaved than their predecessors.

Kids snatched from their bedrooms, shot at in school, fatter than ever, prone to risk-taking and cruelty_is childhood today as bad as the news accounts would have us believe? Is this generation headed for disaster? Kids These Days: Facts and Fictions About Today's Youth critically examines the hottest news stories of the past few years to assess whether the news is really as bad as it sounds. For instance, is kidnapping by strangers really a bigger threat now than in the past? Are disputes at school now settled with guns instead of fists? And are kids, especially girls, becoming bigger bullies than ever before? Kids These Days looks at the stories that made headlines and goes deeper to explore overall trends and statistics to compare the hype to reality. The truth is, kids today do face unique obstacles and challenges, but their situation isn't nearly as dire as the compelling news accounts would have us believe. Our nation's youth have been targeted as a problem population to absolve adult responsibility for creating the often dangerous and difficult conditions many young people must endure. Kids These Days will give the reader pause and perspective to better understand the realities of the first generation to come of age in the twenty-first century.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Kids These Days
Chapter 2 Kidnapped! Childhood Stolen
Chapter 3 Greedy Gluttons: Childhood Indulged
Chapter 4 School House Shock: Zero Tolerance and the Scary School Myth
Chapter 5 Hazed and Confused: Mean Kids
Chapter 6 Jackasses and Copycats: X-treme Behavior
Chapter 7 Hell on Wheels: Teen Drivers
Chapter 8 Conclusion: The Business of Youth Phobia: Fear Sells