This is essentially a brief training manual written to help parents successfully raise children in difficult times. It appears to be written especially for caring parents whose children are attending public or private schools. Although it is not explicitly Catholic in content, the teachings and basic principles presented are essentially Catholic (and the author is Catholic).
Society bombards parents with many questionable philosophies regarding the raising of children. Some are well-meaning, but misguided and can fairly easily be "repaired" with a little common sense. Others are unequivocally disastrous when implemented. In a double-whammy, society bombards our children with many negative influenes that compromise those principles that we most want to instill in them.
The author simply and realistically cuts through all this confusion and shows the truth of traditional Judeo-Christian teachings to be the right and practical answer. Parents will learn to distinguish these sound teachings from Humanistic/Atheistic and New Age teachings and understand the devastating consequences of these erroneous philosophies.
The book discusses the significance of basic parenting styles and how these styles (warm-restrictive, cold-restrictive, warm-permissive or cold-permissive) will impact your children. Other chapters on praenting cover:
- "Conscience: Its Role in Developing Empathy and Compassion" and
- "The Great Self-Esteem Hoax: Relaxed Standards Created Restlessness, Dissatisfaction and a Hunger to Get More for Less"
I highly recommend this section on parenting. There is so much truth in a nutshell contained in these few chapters (which are a very quick read) that they really shouldn't be missed.
The remainder of the book covers the great moral dangers children are faced with today - values education (including suicide education, sexual orientation education and AIDS education), sex education and pornography, televised violence and drug abuse. Although these chapters are primarily designed to warn and inform parents of school children to the related dangers, this makes valuable reading for homeschool parents as well. Besides, reminding us of some of the reasons we homeschool, the author provides many insights into human nature and many other helpful tidbits.
Each of the eight chapters provides a summary and "helpful tips" segment. The book also provides a chart comparing three major philosophies relating to raising and educating children: Judeo-Christian, Humanistic/Philosophical Atheism and Cosmic Humanism (New Age Thinking). An extensive bibliography and index are included in the back of the book. Highly recommended.
