The failed century of the child : governing America's young in the twentieth century / Judith Sealander.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sealander, Judith, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Children--Government policy--United States--History--20th century.

Children.

Child welfare--United States--History--20th century.

Child welfare.

Children--Services for--United States--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 374 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Between 1900 and 2000 an unprecedented American effort to use state regulation to guarantee health, opportunity, and security to the country's children failed to reach its goals. The achievements envisioned were enormously ambitious and reflected entrenched but self-contradictory values and Americans' inconsistent expectations of government. As such, a 'failed' century deserves a mixture of rebuke and cautious admiration. Starting with the young, American public policy transformed individuals into strings of measurable characteristics. People became statistics, and if society could just get the measurements right, social policy said, progress would be possible. But children proved hard to quantify. Policies based on optimistic faith in the powers of applied scientific truth revealed perils implicit in acceptance of poorly understood social science paradigms. Definitions changed, as psychology or sociological or statistical theory changed, and good intentions foundered, as experts fiercely challenged each other's conclusions and public policies sought to respond.

Contents:

pt. I. Children's welfare. Juvenile justice: from "child saving" to "public accountability" ; "The Pontius Pilate routine": government responses to child abuse ; "Illusory promises": state aid to poor children

pt. II. Children's Work. "Inducting into adulthood": state reactions to the labor of children and adolescents

pt. III. Children's education. "Laying down principles in the dark": the consequences of compulsory secondary education ; The return of the infant school: twentieth century preschool education ; Public education of disabled children: "rewriting one of the saddest chapters"

pt. IV. Children's health. "Shaped up" by the state: government attempts to improve children's diets, exercise regimes, and physical fitness ; Mandatory medicine: twentieth-century childhood immunization ; Conclusion: two cheers for a "failed" century.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-13855-8

1-280-16155-8

0-511-12157-1

0-511-20417-5

0-511-06285-0

0-511-30698-9

0-511-51160-4

0-511-07131-0

OCLC:

191035813