Reclaiming Childhood

This book exposes the stark consequences on child development of both our low expectations of fellow human beings and our safety-obsessed culture. Helene Guldberg argues that we need to identify what the real problems are - and how much they matter.

Helene Guldberg is co-founder and Director of spiked, the first custombuilt online current affairs publication in the UK. She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in developmental psychology with the Open University and the US study abroad centres CAPA and IES.

Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: The good, the bad, and the history: a balance sheet of modern childhood 1. A childish panic about the next generation 2. Cocooning children 3. Childhood in historical perspective Part II: Freedom and child development 4. Growing up: why risk-taking is good for kids 5. Play: what is it good for? 6. The bullying bandwagon 7. Virtual lives? Media, brands and the MySpace generation Part III: Taking real responsibility: the role of adult society 8. Let parents be parents: the myth of infant determinism 9. Let teachers be teachers: not social workers and 'happiness counsellors' 10. Let strangers be friends: how the 'stranger danger' panic is creating a hostile adult world Afterword Bibliography Index