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Children's rights: Contemporary perspective
Book Reviews
241
but cautious assumptions and conclusions. The literature was thoroughly reviewed and she carefully and continually noted the limits of her study. However, the other research that she cites varies widely in quality and the reader needs to keep this in mind. Meiselman has performed a long needed service in an excellent fashion. Clinicians are seeing more and more cases of incest, and this volume provides a large amount of information that is beneficial to both clinician and researcher. William Friedrich University of North Dakota
Children’s Rights: Contemporary Perspective Edited by P. A. Vardin dc I. N. Brody New York: Teachers College Press, 1978, 182 + xvii pp. What rights should children have ? The editors of Children’s Rights have assembled 10 clear and concise articles responding to the question from the viewpoints of several disciplines and interests. Much of what is said has been said before, but the juxtaposition of the articles by persons with divergent training shows a remarkable similarity of views, of hopes, and of frustration. The collection should be useful to all those who are seriously interested in coming to the aid of the children. The area encompassed is broad: legal rights, political rights, economic rights, rights to education, to treatment, to parental care, and the impact on Third World children of poverty and want. To the extent that the authors identify racism, militarism, and government waste for the denial of children’s rights, they offer little that will help practitioners in the field confronted with the problems of specific children. Most of the authors, however, are mindful of the needs for specifics: Mary Kohler describes specific programs for using work experiences to teach children the ability to assert themselves; Hillary Rodham offers legal solutions; Gerald Koocher provides explanations of the duties and methods of advocates for children. Dramatic suggestions are made by a panel of teen-agers. Other authors analyze, usually in careful detail, areas of concern: Robert Burt examines the question of when government should, and should not, intervene in a family’s affairs; Marcia Lowry
242
Book Reviews
analyzes the law’s unresolved and growing conflict between the rights of parents and rights of children; and Burton White examines the overwhelming need for providing children with basic skills long before kindergarten. The thrust of the work is to point up not only the oftenunsuspected rights of children, but the meaninglessness of these rights if there is no method for enforcement. Children, almost by definition, cannot stand up for themselves. Lawyers are useful in legal situations if they can be made available to the child and will advocate what the child desires and leave the advocacy of what is in the best interests of the child to others. Yet, advocates of some discipline are needed when parents are unwilling and unable to press the child’s right to familial care, or when teachers are unwilling or unable to press the child’s right to education commensurate with particular needs, or when social workers are unwilling or unable to press the child’s right to promised treatment in correctional and mental institutions, in group and foster homes, and in probation and group counseling and chemical restraints. So much is promised to children, so little is done to monitor the promises. Some suggestions are offered; not too many, possibly because there aren’t too many to offer. There is the usual suggestion for a “federal program” but with limited detail. There are suggestions for lawyers and for advocates and general suggestions for educators. There are suggestions for informing the appropriate public so that a heightened awareness will develop proposals viable in the circumstances of various communities. This implicit call for intelligent action is one of the book’s prime values. The book itself would be an excellent primer to inspire and guide local action. It expresses well the underlying philosophies. The contributions of Greene and Connors expand the detail, describe the needs, and lay a foundation for stimulating discussion. Both the neophyte and the expert in all of the affected disciplines will find the book interesting; both will learn and understand-and children will benefit. Lindsay G. Arthur District Court-Juvenile Division Minneapolis, Minnesota
241
but cautious assumptions and conclusions. The literature was thoroughly reviewed and she carefully and continually noted the limits of her study. However, the other research that she cites varies widely in quality and the reader needs to keep this in mind. Meiselman has performed a long needed service in an excellent fashion. Clinicians are seeing more and more cases of incest, and this volume provides a large amount of information that is beneficial to both clinician and researcher. William Friedrich University of North Dakota
Children’s Rights: Contemporary Perspective Edited by P. A. Vardin dc I. N. Brody New York: Teachers College Press, 1978, 182 + xvii pp. What rights should children have ? The editors of Children’s Rights have assembled 10 clear and concise articles responding to the question from the viewpoints of several disciplines and interests. Much of what is said has been said before, but the juxtaposition of the articles by persons with divergent training shows a remarkable similarity of views, of hopes, and of frustration. The collection should be useful to all those who are seriously interested in coming to the aid of the children. The area encompassed is broad: legal rights, political rights, economic rights, rights to education, to treatment, to parental care, and the impact on Third World children of poverty and want. To the extent that the authors identify racism, militarism, and government waste for the denial of children’s rights, they offer little that will help practitioners in the field confronted with the problems of specific children. Most of the authors, however, are mindful of the needs for specifics: Mary Kohler describes specific programs for using work experiences to teach children the ability to assert themselves; Hillary Rodham offers legal solutions; Gerald Koocher provides explanations of the duties and methods of advocates for children. Dramatic suggestions are made by a panel of teen-agers. Other authors analyze, usually in careful detail, areas of concern: Robert Burt examines the question of when government should, and should not, intervene in a family’s affairs; Marcia Lowry
242
Book Reviews
analyzes the law’s unresolved and growing conflict between the rights of parents and rights of children; and Burton White examines the overwhelming need for providing children with basic skills long before kindergarten. The thrust of the work is to point up not only the oftenunsuspected rights of children, but the meaninglessness of these rights if there is no method for enforcement. Children, almost by definition, cannot stand up for themselves. Lawyers are useful in legal situations if they can be made available to the child and will advocate what the child desires and leave the advocacy of what is in the best interests of the child to others. Yet, advocates of some discipline are needed when parents are unwilling and unable to press the child’s right to familial care, or when teachers are unwilling or unable to press the child’s right to education commensurate with particular needs, or when social workers are unwilling or unable to press the child’s right to promised treatment in correctional and mental institutions, in group and foster homes, and in probation and group counseling and chemical restraints. So much is promised to children, so little is done to monitor the promises. Some suggestions are offered; not too many, possibly because there aren’t too many to offer. There is the usual suggestion for a “federal program” but with limited detail. There are suggestions for lawyers and for advocates and general suggestions for educators. There are suggestions for informing the appropriate public so that a heightened awareness will develop proposals viable in the circumstances of various communities. This implicit call for intelligent action is one of the book’s prime values. The book itself would be an excellent primer to inspire and guide local action. It expresses well the underlying philosophies. The contributions of Greene and Connors expand the detail, describe the needs, and lay a foundation for stimulating discussion. Both the neophyte and the expert in all of the affected disciplines will find the book interesting; both will learn and understand-and children will benefit. Lindsay G. Arthur District Court-Juvenile Division Minneapolis, Minnesota