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Overview
Most people know juvenile offenders only from daily headlines, and the images portrayed by the media are extreme and violent: predators and even "superpredators." Distorted and incomplete, these pictures shape the way Americans think and feel about city kids, poor kids, children of color.
A Kind and Just Parent gives us a transformative view of kids caught up in the justice system that we could never get from nightly news and newspaper stories. William Ayers has spent five years as teacher and observer in Chicago's Juvenile Court prison, the nation's first and largest institution of juvenile justice, founded by legendary reformer Jane Addams to act as a "kind and just parent" for kids in need. Today, immensely confused and confusing, it serves as a perfect microcosm of the way American justice deals with children.
Through brilliant storytelling, Ayers captures the lives and personalities of young people caught up in the juvenile justice system. The book follows a year in the life of the prison school. Its characters are three dimensional: funny, quirky, sometimes violent, and often vulnerable. We see young people talking about their lives, analyzing their own situations, and thinking about their friends and their futures. We watch them throughout a school year and meet some remarkable teachers. From the intimate perspective of a teacher, Ayers gives us portraits, history, and analysis that help us to understand not only what brought these kids into the court system, but why people find it hard to think straight about them, and what we might do to keep their younger brothers and sisters from landing in the same place.
Unsentimental yet wrenching, A Kind and Just Parent is a riveting look at kids and crime. It will change the way Americans think about juvenile crime and juvenile justice.
Synopsis
Most people know juvenile offenders only from daily headlines, and the images portrayed by the media are extreme and violent: predators and even "superpredators." Distorted and incomplete, these pictures shape the way Americans think and feel about city kids, poor kids, children of color.
A Kind and Just Parent gives us a transformative view of kids caught up in the justice system that we could never get from nightly news and newspaper stories. William Ayers has spent five years as teacher and observer in Chicago's Juvenile Court prison, the nation's first and largest institution of juvenile justice, founded by legendary reformer Jane Addams to act as a "kind and just parent" for kids in need. Today, immensely confused and confusing, it serves as a perfect microcosm of the way American justice deals with children.
Through brilliant storytelling, Ayers captures the lives and personalities of young people caught up in the juvenile justice system. The book follows a year in the life of the prison school. Its characters are three dimensional: funny, quirky, sometimes violent, and often vulnerable. We see young people talking about their lives, analyzing their own situations, and thinking about their friends and their futures. We watch them throughout a school year and meet some remarkable teachers. From the intimate perspective of a teacher, Ayers gives us portraits, history, and analysis that help us to understand not only what brought these kids into the court system, but why people find it hard to think straight about them, and what we might do to keep their younger brothers and sisters from landing in the same place.
Unsentimental yet wrenching, A Kind and Just Parent is a riveting look at kids and crime. It will change the way Americans think about juvenile crime and juvenile justice.
Library Journal
Headlines regularly depict juvenile criminals as extreme and violent "superpredators"a distorted and incomplete picture that shapes the way Americans think and feel about poor (and mostly minority) city kids. For five years, Ayers, a former member of the radical 1960s Weathermen organization, acted as a teacher and an observer in Chicago's Juvenile Court prison, the nation's firstand largestinstitution of juvenile justice. Founded by the legendary Jane Addams to act as a "kind and just parent" for children in need, the court today epitomizes the confused and confusing way American justice deals with children. In Ayers's book, an account of one year in his classroom there, students describe their lives, analyze their situations, and think about their futures. Like Jonathan Kozol in Amazing Grace (LJ 10/1/95), Ayers shows that we must overcome our preconceived notions of these children and learn to deal with the realities of their lives. Ayers is a born educator and communicator, with a voice of hope. Recommended for general collections.Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass.
Editorials
Library Journal
Headlines regularly depict juvenile criminals as extreme and violent "superpredators"a distorted and incomplete picture that shapes the way Americans think and feel about poor (and mostly minority) city kids. For five years, Ayers, a former member of the radical 1960s Weathermen organization, acted as a teacher and an observer in Chicago's Juvenile Court prison, the nation's firstand largestinstitution of juvenile justice. Founded by the legendary Jane Addams to act as a "kind and just parent" for children in need, the court today epitomizes the confused and confusing way American justice deals with children. In Ayers's book, an account of one year in his classroom there, students describe their lives, analyze their situations, and think about their futures. Like Jonathan Kozol in Amazing Grace (LJ 10/1/95), Ayers shows that we must overcome our preconceived notions of these children and learn to deal with the realities of their lives. Ayers is a born educator and communicator, with a voice of hope. Recommended for general collections.Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass.Kirkus Reviews
A sympathetic, revealing portrait of young people caught up in the juvenile justice system, and a searing indictment of the society that has failed to nurture them.A former leader of the radical Weathermen in the '60s, Ayers (Teacher Lore: Learning from Our Own Experiences, not reviewed) has spent the '90s working with and observing young people and their teachers in the Chicago Juvenile Court. The largest such institution in the world, the court's original mission was to serve as "a kind and just parent" to those youths whose own parents were unable to properly care for them. Today it struggles to deal with hundreds of children and adolescents, predominantly African-American and Latino, many of them implicated in crimes, who have grown up in dysfunctional families in the grim public-housing projects of Chicago. That so many children end up in juvenile court is no surprise—as one judge, who on an average morning sees 30 cases, comments, "No jobs, no future, no family—and then all they have is guns and gangs and drugs to sell." Ayers reminds us repeatedly of the statistical link between abuse, poverty, and the likelihood of arrest as a juvenile. What's particularly perturbing to the author is the media's depiction of these youths as "superpredators" who are responsible for the majority of crimes committed in society, while youth under 18 actually commit only 13 percent of all offenses. When Ayers allows the youths to speak for themselves, they emerge as vulnerable and likable, despite their often heinous crimes. Their teachers too are, for the most part, caring, talented professionals who believe in their students' potential to turn their lives around. But the likelihood that few will do so is deeply unsettling.
Likely to challenge many of our preconceptions, this is a graceful and passionate vision of the criminal justice system.