Written by a prominent array of scholars and practitioners, this book elucidates the complexities, contradictions, and confusion surrounding adolescence in American culture and education. For too long, harmful public myths and lies have portrayed teenagers as a principal cause of our nation's social ills. Similar unfair charges have been lodged against America's teachers and schools throughout our history. This book offers public counterpoints to those simplistic blaming-the-victim arguments. Instead, it traverses a more nuanced and realistic path toward uncovering the developmental, socio-cultural realities faced by today's teenagers. It also provides rich pedagogical strategies, and educational wisdom for allowing adolescents to grow as worthy human beings. This important and timely book will appeal to preservice teachers, teacher educators, education and social service professionals, policymakers, and all those interested in bettering the lives of adolescents in this uncertain world. Contents include: (1) Theoretical Overview: Adolescent Culture and the Culture of Refusal (Brett Elizabeth Blake); (2) Who Is Included in the Urban Family? (Katia Goldfarb); (3) "Who You Think I Am Is Not Necessarily Who I Think I Am": The Multiple Positionalities of Urban Student Identities (Rebecca A. Goldstein); (4) (Elizabeth Seaton) Tween Social and Biological Reproduction: Early Puberty in Girls; (5) The Body of Evidence: Dangerous Intersections between Development and Culture in the Lives of Adolescent Girls (Mary K. Bentley); (6) Urban African American Female Students and Educational Resiliency (Venus Evans-Winters); (7) Making a Way Out of No Way: Black Male Students at City High School (Garrett Albert Duncan/Ryonnel Jackson); (8) Between a Danger Zone and a Safe Space: LGBTQ Youth and the Challenge of Democratic Education (Dennis Carlson); (9) What About Adolescent Curiosity and Risk Taking? (Thomas G. Reio, Jr.); (10) Understanding Adolescent Suicide: A Psychological Interpretation of Developmental and Contextual Factors (Pedro R. Portes/Daya S. Sandhu/Robert Longwell-Grice); (11) Framing Adolescents, Their Schools and Culture: Contested Worldviews (Linda Irwin-DeVitis); (12) Stigma Stories in the Media: Four Discourses about Teen Mothers, Welfare, and Poverty (Deirdre M. Kelly); (13) What Does It Mean to Be in a Gang? (Haroon Kharem); (14) Would You Like Values with That? Chick-fil-A and Character Education (Deron Boyles); (15) Implied Adolescents and Implied Teachers: A Generation Gap for New Times (Cynthia Lewis/Margaret Finders); (16) Adolescent Engagement, Connectedness and Dropping Out of School (John Smyth); (17) Overcoming Negative School Experiences of African-American Adolescents: What School Counselors Can Do to Eradicate Ethnocentrism (Dana Griffin/Julia Bryan); (18) Why An Undemocratic Capitalism Has Brought Public Education to Its Knees (Richard A. Gibboney); (19) Deferred but Determined: A Middle School Manifesto (John H. Lounsbury); (20) "The Ideal High School for Future Adolescents: A Neo-Deweyan Perspective" (Douglas J. Simpson/Margaret Price); (21) Beyond "Written Off": Surviving and Thriving Through Adolescent Literacy (Dan Bauer/Linda Golson Bradley/Lindell Dillon); (22) Urban Youth Engaging Poetry and Creating Learning Communities (Korina M. Jocson); (23) Teaching History to Adolescents (John A. Beineke); (24) Critical Civic Literacy in Schools: Adolescents Seeking to Understand and Improve The(ir) World (Kenneth Teitelbaum); (25) Teaching Students How to Think Critically: The Confederate Flag Controversy in the High School Social Studies Curriculum (Susan L. Schramm-Pate/Richard Lussier); (26) Urban Success: A Multidimensional Mathematics Approach with Equitable Outcomes (Jo Boaler); (27) Making High School Science Instruction Effective (Thomas R. Koballa, Jr./Abdulkadir Demir); (28) Teaching About Global Warming in Truck Country (Jana Dean); (29) "If You're Good at Nothin", What Are Ya Good For?" Disability and Identity (Melissa M. Jones); (30) How Important Is Technology in Urban Education? (Vanessa Domine); (31) The New Vocationalism: What It Is, What It Could Be (W. Norton Grubb); (32) Character Education for Adolescents: Pedagogy of Control (Tianlong Yu); (33) An Empowering, Transformative Approach to Service (Jeff Claus/Curtis Ogden); (34) The Early College Concept: Building Hope for Students, Parents, Professionals and Community (Camille Daniel-Tyson/Lianna Nix); (35) How Can Caring Help? A Personalized Cross-Generational Examination of Violent Adolescent Experiences in Schools (Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon); (36) "I'm a Person; I'm Not Dirt!": The Impact of Power Relationships on Perceptions of Caring in a Secondary Classroom (Marcia Peck); and (37) Talks with Teenagers and Teachers (Nel Noddings).