HIGH SCHOOL ISN'T PG-13

In "PARENTING WITHOUT PERFECTION" John Seel does three things well. (1) He describes the toxic culture now suffocating America's children. (2) He critiques a few ultra-severe crisis management techniques which aim to change children's defiant behavior. (3) Dr Seel then commends a fresh approach: treating children as God treats us. Respecting children's freedom as God respects theirs, parents will focus on influencing children's wills, not controlling their behavior.

(1) OUR TOXIC CULTURE.

Arising at the same time as the Playboy Philosophy, certain decadent time bombs within ideas of the 1960s are now exploding amidst the lives of teens of the Year 2000. Today's adolescents make up the first American generation raised largely without religion. To many youngsters their God is themselves. "Love yourself, indulge yourself, unshackle yourself": that is our culture's message to teens. Hollywood's culture industry says: "forget organized religion and family morality. For God is dead. But Sex lives."

(2) WHAT SOME HORRIFIED PARENTS ARE DOING.

Most parents just wing it, says John Seel. Others opt to control their children's behavior. They try TEEN HELP or sign waivers permitting extreme techniques for modifying behavior: handcuffs, stun guns, and even solitary confinement. Some judges assign young offenders to "boot camps" or "teen courts."

(3) CHRISTIAN PARENTING.

In helpful detail John Seel urges parents to imitate Jesus: the Good Shepherd, leading his willing flock from in front, not lashing them on from behind. The father in the Prodigal Son parable shows how loving parents must let adolescents make their own mistakes. Parents must influence not behavior, but wills and wants.

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John Seel argues that if the adolescent does not freely choose a life in the spirit, there is no forcing him or her. Only if free to choose, will a child accept adult supervision or even the lightest of parental monitoring.

Christlike parenting of self-directed children is not without cost. For parents must immerse themselves in the sometimes off-putting culture of their children: their loud music, their skate boarding, their craving to be loved, respected and to feel safe. Parents might begin by reading books about teen culture and then plunging head first into that raucous, unruly culture themselves. A mother must make time to interact with schools and teachers and with her sons' friends. For as teen film director Chris Weitz puts it, "High school isn't PG-13." A father has to know how girls signal to one another. Learning from teens is no more than a painful, first step. But that step must be taken by all parents consciously influencing their teens to choose to become Christ's apprentices. ---------------

In "PARENTING WITHOUT PERFECTION" John Seel does three things well. (1) He describes the toxic culture now suffocating America's children. (2) He critiques a few ultra-severe crisis management techniques which aim to change children's defiant behavior. (3) Dr Seel then commends a fresh approach: treating children as God treats us. Respecting children's freedom as God respects theirs, parents will focus on influencing children's wills, not controlling their behavior.

(1) OUR TOXIC CULTURE.

Arising at the same time as the Playboy Philosophy, certain decadent time bombs within ideas of the 1960s are now exploding amidst the lives of teens of the Year 2000. Today's adolescents make up the first American generation raised largely without religion. Hollywood's culture industry says: "forget organized religion and family morality. For God is dead. But Sex lives."

(2) WHAT SOME HORRIFIED PARENTS ARE DOING.

Most parents just wing it, says John Seel. Others opt to control their children's behavior. They try TEEN HELP or sign waivers permitting extreme techniques for modifying behavior: handcuffs, stun guns, and even solitary confinement. Some judges assign young offenders to "boot camps" or "teen courts."

(3) CHRISTIAN PARENTING.

In helpful detail John Seel urges parents to imitate Jesus: the Good Shepherd, leading his willing flock from in front, not lashing them on from behind. The father in the Prodigal Son parable shows how loving parents must let adolescents make their own mistakes. Parents must influence not behavior, but wills and wants.

John Seel argues that if the adolescent does not freely choose a life in the spirit, there is no forcing him or her. Only if free to choose, will a child accept adult supervision or even the lightest of parental monitoring.

Christlike parenting of self-directed children is not without cost. For parents must immerse themselves in the sometimes off-putting culture of their children: their loud music, their skate boarding, their craving to be loved, respected and to feel safe. Parents might begin by reading books about teen culture and then plunging head first into that raucous, unruly culture themselves. A mother must make time to interact with schools and teachers and with her sons' friends. For as teen film director Chris Weitz puts it, "High school isn't PG-13." A father has to know how girls signal to one another. Learning from teens is no more than a painful, first step. But that step must be taken by all parents consciously influencing their teens to choose to become Christ's apprentices.

I forced my parents to buy this book (not that they wouldn't have anyhow) and read it voraciously. I am almost sixteen and found Parenting Without Perfection to be an accurate portrayal of teen society today. The foundation of this book is the Christian heart's drive to seek to be an apprentice of Jesus, a very important desire which is all too often lacking in our churches. I greatly appreciated his spiritual insights and can confirm as a teenager that the best way to influence our hearts is to seek to understand the culture in which we live and to love us. So many parents today (praise God they are not mine) either don't want to know what their teens are doing or try to control their lives. Seel takes a realistic look at the truth about the Biblical, wise way to approach parenting. I highly recommend this book for all parents- you will be blessed by what you read.

Great photography and sculptures, but the writing style is fool's gold. Too expensive as well, even with the Amazon reduction. It's great but not that great.

as good as the book is, i must say that it pales in comparison to seeing his work in person. i saw some of it at the renwick gallery in washington d.c. and it's just incredible. he's come out of his shell in the last few years but has been producing great stuff for a long time.

nevertheless, the book is worth it. but if you ever get the chance to see his work, by all means do so. there was an interesting piece on him by the "sunday morning" cbs news show. you may be able to get a tape of it from them.

As a professor of Art History at an Afghani University, I would like to congratulate, extol, and exult Daniel Brush's masterpiece of a monograph. Its insight and vivid explanations are invaluable and I am discussing with my colleagues about including it as an elective course for my students. Its sheer brilliance exemplifies its utter domination over any other art book. Congratulations to Daniel Brush for enhancing the art world. He will surely go down in history as the pioneer of gold sculpting and as example for all.

Northeastern University Press was kind enough to furnish two copies of this book to me and I saw exactly what several reviewers seized upon when they wrote on this collection of essays. Yes, the essays are not very well connected, as more than four people contributed bits and pieces to this work. No, the polish one normally sees in collections of this nature is missing. However, the themes that comes through are that race-class politics have and continue to be big part of the abolition movement of the death penalty in the United States. Unlike my colleagues, I am supporter in theory of punishing bad people who do terrible things. Unfortunately, executions in the US are undeniably flawed, fraught with corruption, and dependent on the worst sort of UnAmerican bias possible. After viewing my own book, I was again sickened by the evidence that innocent people have met their deaths at the hands of a governments that use my money and do their dirty, incompetent business in my name. Any real American should be outraged by the idea that the greatest system of justice in the world is being undermined by individuals who use executions to pave their personal career paths. When one remembers this, it is truly difficult to worry about a few factual errors or some editorial mistakes. If you are supporting the death penalty in the United States you had better think again-it's a serious mistake that is killing people. The condemned are not heroic or even innocent, just small people who make very serious mistakes, but it does not mean that they should be executed because they are poor, black, or without influential friends and families. If anyone doubts this logic just count the number of middle class or rich people on death rows in the country and you will know that abolition is the only answer possible if fair treatment is ever a reality.
(1/03)-If anyone cares, New York is soon to use its capital punishment law for the first time in several decades where a man will die at the hands of the state. This is no reason to celebrate. It's another example of a politician (Pataki) who used the lives of the poorest individuals among us to capitalize on. Governor, I hope you are happy.