Identifies 20 ways to enable families to be involved in education, help teachers and schools build family involvement, mobilize community support for schools and families, and share information about effective methods. (SK)

Discusses the parental responsibility of giving guidance to young children to provide them with a safe world, set reasonable standards of civilized behavior, and provide a model of responsible action. Describes difficulties in establishing and maintaining firm guidance for children. Maintains that parents need to make demands reflecting children's…

Four suggestions for helping children break the habit of swearing include: realize that swearing is a problem, and it reflects negatively on an individual's character, maturity, intelligence, and respect for others; explain why some words are not acceptable, whether everyone uses them or not; teach children to cope with their emotions in other…

Surveys 32 men between the ages of 16-30 who have not yet fathered a child to explore how they envision fatherhood. Interpretative analyses yielded two interrelated substantive dimensions: fatherhood readiness and fathering visions. Provides theoretical themes for understanding the dimensions, and discusses how these dimensions inform…

Describes the importance of parents teaching their children about the dangers of alcohol, explaining how parents can help their children and youth learn to just say no. Sidebars discuss: teen issues parents need to know; how to set guidelines for parties and other social events; and the PTA's position on alcohol and other drug abuse. (SM)

A questionnaire study elicited views of 14,328 Hong Kong parents on kindergarten education. Responses indicated positive attitudes toward kindergarten. Parents thought that kindergarten was important for their children and that well qualified teachers were necessary for kindergarten. Very few believed that attending kindergarten eased parental…

Using the 1995 new cohort of the National Survey of Adolescent Males, this paper examines the association between perceptions of child support and adolescent males' sexual activity. The results indicate that adolescent males who expect the chance of being required to pay child support is high if one becomes a non-resident father or who has a…

This article examines the arguments and underlying assumptions of Adam Swift's book on "How Not to Be a Hypocrite." It argues that, although there is much that is commendable and fascinating in the book, it might have benefited from a more sociological approach to the middle class. While the book is designed to capture and argue with the anxieties…

The reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a school-reform law closely aligned with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB); a civil rights law; and a "cousin" of the 1996 welfare reform law. By imposing new or strengthened accountability expectations on students with disabilities and their parents, the…

This article draws on Foucault's concept of governmentality to explore how recent political moves to legalise "flexibility" mobilises education authorities to make "community" a technical means of achieving the political objective of schooling the child. I argue that "flexibility" in this sense is a neo-liberal strategy that shifts relations…

The purpose of this study was to determine how Child Protective Services (CPS) investigators decide to substantiate mothers for failure-to-protect from sexual abuse. A case-comparison study was used to compare 31 mothers who were and 62 mothers who were not substantiated for failure-to-protect by CPS. The multivariate analysis showed that mothers…

Exposure to cell phones, DVD players, video games, computers, digital cameras, and iPods has made today's young people more technologically advanced than those of any previous generation. As a result, parents are now concerned that their children are spending too much time in front of the computer. In this article, the author focuses her…

Examines parental control over children's television viewing, as reported by parents and as reported by the children themselves. Results showed a more general pattern of exaggeration by parents than was reported by children regarding television control by parents. (Author/DEP)

Suggests a six-element accountability system that is more broadly conceived than those in operation now. This system includes the community as well as educators. (Author/IRT)

The author feels that vandals should feel the full weight of social disapproval of their acts, that equipment and facilities designed to guard confidential material must be given greater consideration, and that school business officials should speed up bill payments to vendors. (Author/MLF)