A beautiful spark -- The truth about kids -- The truth about school -- Let's talk about screens -- Time out for gratitude -- Playing different roles expands the mind -- Concentration, imagination, and curiosity -- What if? -- Social action: an urge to improve the world -- Fifth-grade firebrands -- Peer groups and other outside pressures -- Order in the classroom versus critical thinking -- Company ads and deceptions -- The dark side -- Maturity at an early age -- The dictionary: a door to meaning, understanding, and enchantment -- Being smart -- Solitude -- History infused with myths -- Unlearning to learn -- Learning by doing -- Self-education can be the best medicine -- Addictions -- Who's raising you anyway? -- Talking back: controlling what we the people already own -- Young inventors and tween talk shows -- The importance of a questioning mind -- Family stories -- Family discussions -- Beyond family discussions -- Discovering how you're controlled by companies -- Good companies -- Three historic Americans: beating the odds through self-education -- Frames of reference revisited -- Moving from knowledge to action: developing healthy habits -- Becoming an informed consumer -- Your own body -- Becoming a good ancestor -- Becoming a smart voter -- Becoming alert to propaganda -- What happened to physical education in schools? -- The beauty business -- The two great pillars of our civil justice system -- Taboos and the classroom -- Smoking: a case study in confronting power -- Citizen action / community action: what is it? -- The discipline of discovery -- A side note on Proverbs -- Holidays: what we celebrate -- "War is a racket" -- Waging peace, not war -- Colman McCarthy and peace studies -- Animal welfare and respecting nature -- A fond farewell.
Summary:
"You Are Your Own Best Teacher! provides a remarkable variety of teachable antidotes to the punishing forces bearing down on youngsters from harmful marketing, the insidious grip of 'virtual reality' and the tyranny of peer groups. Apprehensive parents and burdened teachers will delight in the lessons of this book for Tweens (nine to twelve year olds). It will spark their innate curiosity, imagination and idealism. Tweens, who are whipsawed by relentless distractions, profit-driven manipulations and oncoming addictions, are guided toward elevating their own sense of significance, protection and realizable achievements. Through this process of discovery, they explore wider frames of reference with roles inside and outside the family environment. Many motivating stories from history to the present make Claire Nader's gentle nudges toward self-educational experiences exciting. She takes children on a tour of the print dictionary, highlighting concepts such as justice, freedom, peace, wisdom and gratitude. She introduces the young to Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass and Helen Keller to illustrate their profound awareness and discipline. By addressing Tween self-consciousness, the book takes youngsters on new explorations about being "smart" to learn about their own bodies, pressing for physical activity, eating smartly, controlling their time and avoiding hours glued to hypnotic screens. By explaining the importance of learning to unlearn and ask questions such as "what if?" and "why?" she encourages Tweens to teach themselves to distinguish fact from fiction, thinking from believing, respect from disrespect, all of which will prepare them for the realities they will face as they grow older. This book doesn't talk down to Tweens. The author shows they are capable of understanding the perils of "click on" contracts and their rights under tort law. Self- teaching to build their confidence is also heartening for parents who feel deeply the loss of parental upbringing."--Amazon.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.