In the past the intrinsic pleasures of parenthood for most American families were increased by the extrinsic economic return thatchildren brought. Today, parents have children despite their economic cost. This is a major, indeed a revolutionary, change. — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
Despite the long-term reduction in familial roles and functions, we believe that parents are still the world's greatest experts about the needs of their own children. Virtually any private or public program that supports parents, effectively supports children. This principle… — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
Today's parents have little authority over those others with whom they share the task of raising their children. On the contrary,most parents deal with… — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
The myth of the self-sufficient individual and of the self-sufficient, protected, and protective familytells us that those who need help are ultimately inadequate. And… — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
Confronted with the unhappy facts of exclusion, we sometimes reassure ourselves by telling stories: the poor boys who made it, theblacks who became a… — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
Within forty years of their arrival in the Plymouth colony, the first white settlers were afraid their children had lost the dedication and religious… — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
In the early nineteenth century, the doctrine of self-sufficiency came to apply to families as well as individuals.... The familybecame a special protected place,… — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
Recognizing that family self-sufficiency is a false myth, we also need to acknowledge that all today's families need help in raising children. The problem… — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
The psychological pain--and the ethical shame--of American poverty are made greater by the fact that this country possesses the wealth and the energy to… — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
Mothers work outside the home for many reasons; one of them is almost always because their families need their income to live up to… — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
In the end, the fate of children depends on our ability to use technology constructively and carefully. The connection of childrenand technology is not… — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
One current reaction to change in families, for example, is the proposal for more "education for parenthood," on the theory that this training will… — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
The most important difference between these early American families and our own is that early families constituted economic unitsin which all members, from young… — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
Poor children live in a particularly dangerous world--an urban world of broken stair railings, of busy streets serving as playgrounds, of lead paint, rats… — Kenneth Keniston Copy Share Image
