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Reviews
A revolutionary proposal for raising
responsible and happy teenagers.
“The Case Against Adolescence is
one of the most revolutionary books I have ever read.”
—Albert Ellis, Ph.D., The Albert
Ellis Institute (from the Foreword)
“Perhaps it is time for a paradigm
shift in how we understand the tumultuous time we call adolescence. Dr.
Epstein’s landmark book may be just what we need to help enhance our
understanding of and better serve those moving through this
complex period of life.”
—Drew Pinsky, M.D., Co-Host, “Loveline”;
medical director, Department of Chemical Dependency Services, Las
Encinas Hospital, Pasadena, California
"Dr. Epstein's ideas about teens
are revolutionary. Many of our teens today have serious problems, and if
Dr. Epstein is right, those problems are largely of our own making. This
book will bring our ideas about teens down to earth."
—Buzz Aldrin, Ph.D. (Col., USAF,
ret.), Apollo 11 Astronaut
“Epstein’s book presents a serious
and bold challenge to widely held views about teenagers: that they are
inherently irresponsible, that they must be shielded from adult
challenges, that they are not capable of making sound decisions about
matters of health. Epstein
demonstrates in a rigorous and persuasive way that teens are in fact
highly capable—in some
respects even more capable than
adults. By shielding and protecting young people from adulthood, we have
isolated them
from their elders, from their
spiritual roots, and from their heritage, leaving many of them angry and
confused in the
spiritually empty world of teen
culture. We need to reexamine our basic assumptions about young people,
and Epstein
shows us how.”
—Deepak Chopra,
Life After Death: The Burden of
Proof
“This is a profoundly important
book. Dr. Epstein is raising issues about our young people that we need
to think about and evaluate carefully. Generally, I think the
institutions that serve our young are sound, but this book points to
some obvious problems–most especially the fact that our young people are
largely isolated from the adult world. If you care about America’s
young, this is a must read.”
— Dr. Joyce Brothers, author &
columnist
“I believe what Dr. Epstein is
saying one hundred percent. Young people have the ability to do great
things; they just never have the opportunity to do them. We treat teens
as if they’re just kids, assuming they can’t do very much, but when
they’re put into tough situations, they tend to perform just as well or
even better than adults. As a teen I successfully impersonated an
airline pilot, a medical doctor, a lawyer, and a college instructor.
Imagine what I could have done if I had actually been encouraged to
develop my adult capabilities. And imagine what today’s teens might be
able to do if they weren’t so completely cut off from the adult world.”
—Frank W. Abagnale,
Catch Me If You Can;
president, Abagnale & Associates
“Retired and in poor health, it is
extremely rare for me to endorse any book these days. However, I feel
powerfully called to write in support of Dr. Robert Epstein’s book
The Case Against Adolescence.
I heartily believe in the validity of what he is saying. Furthermore, I
believe what he is saying to have vast consequence for our society. All
of America should take note of it.”
—M. Scott Peck, M.D.,
The Road Less Traveled
“The American education system, as
we know it, was designed during a period of rapid industrialization. The
mission of schools was to inculcate ‘industrial discipline’ as a means
preparing our young people, in factory-like fashion, to work in the new
industrial world. That antiquated system no longer prepares our young
for the real world they will be facing in the years to come, and, as Dr.
Epstein shows, it also isolates young people from adults in ways that
have unfortunate consequences. If you care about the future of our young
people, The Case Against
Adolescence is an essential
read.”
—Alvin Toffler,
Future Shock and Revolutionary
Wealth
“Parents puzzled about the reasons
for changes in child-rearing since they were children may find some
answers in Robert Epstein’s argument about what he calls ‘the artificial
extension of childhood.’”
—George F. Will, columnist
“Epstein’s book on adolescence is a
fresh and timely look at what makes teens miserable, and how their
condition can
be helped. It is a very original
approach, sure to ignite discussion and controversy. A great deal of
what he says is right on the money, and few people have written on this
subject with his combination of expert knowledge and clear prose.”
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
Flow;
professor of management, Clairemont
Graduate Center
“Here are America’s youth, regarded
keenly, knowingly–with many popular assumptions and notions set aside in
favor of an accurate and thoughtful portrayal of our young fellow
citizens, and too, many of the rest of us, who may fail them by
overlooking their achievements and possibilities.”
—Robert Coles, M.D., professor of
psychiatry, Harvard University; recipient, Pulitzer Prize
“Robert Epstein’s critique of our
conventional view of adolescence is timely. Of all its wide
implications, perhaps the
most significant is the one for
education. Treating young people as adults and giving them the
opportunity to embrace
responsibility are strategies that
the empirical research an analysis of Epstein’s work justify. This is a
vital book for
parents and policy makers on the
state and federal levels. It is a long overdue contribution.”
—Leon Botstein,
Jefferson’s Children: Education and
the Promise of American Culture;
president, Bard College
“Teenagers are not children. Dr.
Epstein convincingly demonstrates the harm caused by treating them that
way. With
an intellectual honesty not often
seen, this book cuts through the mountain of prejudice and negative
stereotypes and shows
teens as they once were, and some
day will be again. This is an important book, and one that strikes the
next nail in the coffin of the bigoted “storm and stress” view of
adolescence. This book should be required reading for all youth workers,
all parents trying to better understand their kids, all politicians
setting youth policy, and most especially for teens who instinctively
recognize the injustice and harm of our system. This book is a powerful
tool for articulating that injustice.”
—Alex Koroknay-Palicz, president &
executive director, National Youth Rights Association
“Dr. Epstein offers a compelling
mixture of historical evidence and modern insight into the present
problem of infantilization of youth. If we trust our youth with the
inevitable responsibilities of modern life sooner rather than later, we
can reinvigorate our society. Dr. Epstein’s ideas provide an academic
framework for a number of issues–like allowing teens to vote in
municipal elections at age 16–that are close to my heart and crucial for
the future of American society. In thisiconoclastic work, Dr. Epstein
shows not only how much we lose by belittling teens, but also how much
we stand to gain by empowering them.”
—Gale A. Brewer, Member, New York
City Council
“We are all individual and desire
to be treated as such. Dr. Epstein makes a good case for adolescents to
be treated
not as a group with a formula, but
as individual unique people.”
—Suzanne Somers, actress and author
“Because of my family’s troubled
history and because I’m the mother of two teens, I have a deep interest
in the mental health of young people. This book has opened my eyes, and
it will open yours too. We’ve completely isolated teens from the people
they’re about to become, and we’ve trapped them in a meaningless world
controlled by peers and media. We’ve forgotten how capable young people
are, and they know it and are frustrated. We need to completely
reexamine how we treat America’s teens.”
—Mariel Hemingway, actress
“This is an amazing book, long
overdue. I’ve been saying for decades that the way to bring out the best
in young people is to give them meaningful responsibility and authority,
and the Guardian Angels have shown in countries around the world how
powerful this model is. The surest way to make teens miserable is to
treat them like kids, and the best way to make them strong is to let
them grow up. Dr. Epstein lays out these issues like no one ever has
before.”
—Curtis Sliwa,
Mindfulness;
founder & president, Guardian
Angels; co-host, “Curtis and Kuby in the Morning”
“While human evolution has for
hundreds of millennia trusted teens to be fully competent adults and
parents, our present culture has somehow found it convenient to view
them as children. Robert Epstein makes a powerful case for correcting
this costly error.”
—Jean Liedloff,
The Continuum Concept
“The
Case Against Adolescence
constructs a powerful argument against trivializing a significant
fraction of the population in the interests of an illusion. Whether
you’re a parent, a teacher, a policy maker, or a recovering victim of
enforced childishness, you need to read this book.”
—John Taylor Gatto,
Dumbing Us Down and The Underground
History of American Education;
former New York City and New York State “Teacher of the Year”
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