A Better World for Our Children: Rebuilding American Family Values - Hardcover

Spock, Benjamin, M.D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1882605128 ISBN 13: 9781882605125

Publisher: Natl Pr Books, 1994

Synopsis

The dean of American pediatricians reflects on the disintegration of American values and its resulting impact on our children, arguing that parents must change their emphasis from materialism to a stress on responsibility, sharing, generosity, and service. $100,000 ad/promo. Tour.

About this title

From Library Journal:

Spock must be doing something right. He's 91, in excellent health, and married to a woman 40 years his junior. One thing he doesn't think most Americans do is raise their children right. As a pediatrician, he has written several books on the care and feeding of children that have become the Bible for child rearing. In this new work, he concentrates more on the care and nourishing of the child's soul than on the body. Spock offers lots of good information on how to build real families, not just a group of people living together. He suggests sitting down to dinner together, taking hikes, playing games, and running for political office as ways of helping our country revert from a moral system based on the almighty dollar to one based on good ethical values. Spock does not pretend to know all of the answers, but he hopes that his book will inspire people to talk about changes and do their part to bring them about. He sounds like the best grandpa anyone could have.
Belinda J. Pugh, Kings Bay Base Lib., Ga.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Unlike some of Dr. Spock's 16 previous books, this one does not offer specific advice about children for their parents. Instead, the venerable Spock (Baby and Child Care), now 91, writes in support of "spiritual values," expounds on what he considers the decline of life in America, and suggests ways of reversing that trend for the benefit of everyone-and their children. Some symptoms of bad times, in Spock's opinion: a spirit of competition that ultimately harms workers and the workplace; and violence as a pervasive theme in American entertainment. Some of his points are well-taken, others crankily familiar: for instance, he cautions us on the dangers of secondary cigarette smoke inhalation. Spock also strikes a conservative note, as when he complains that a habit of informal dressing is innately antisocial. However, his conversational pitch for idealism (and against cynicism) is basically convincing and sometimes heartening.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Natl Pr Books
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 1882605128
• ISBN 13: 9781882605125
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 207