Ships without a Shore: America's Undernurtured Children

by Anne Pierce and Anne R. Pierce

Book Overview

Childhood in America has changed, and not for the better. From day care for babies, to the exhausting array of activities for children, to the storm of lurid and violent shows now deemed appropriate for the young, to the expectation that teenagers build resumes, childhood has been thoroughly redefined. Anne R. Pierce argues that this radical re-definition has been embraced with remarkably little discussion about what children, by nature, need.

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1412810906
• ISBN13: 9781412810906
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 277 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Very important book of undertstanding what is happening with parenting today!

I didn't start school until I was 7 years old and I managed to move to USA, learn english language, finish engineering degree and become a mommy. Now I am stay at home mom and I am tired hearing about preschool, socialization for little kids...etc. This is very important book that explains a lot about USA and culture that is influencing parents today. Our children should be most important in our lives...not work and money. Highly recomended read!

Solutions Come From Truely Understanding a problem

In Ships Without A Shore Anne Pierce does in fact examine the heart of current issues. The rapid flow of soundbytes of information in our online age leads to often rapid 'expert opinions' without any attempt to understand the core of the problem. Chapter 1 begins with "We modern Americans tend, at times, to doubt the obvious and believe the absurd." Pierce digs deep into the subject, supporting statements with historical facts. common sense and analytics. This type of exploration leads the reader to self examine and hence to solutions.

Providing a Safe Shore for a Silenced Minority

Motivated by the negligence of modern parents on determining appropriate childrearing approaches, Anne Pierce examines the harsh consequences American society inflicts upon our children in "Ships Without a Shore". Today's standards create no solid foundation for substantial growth as the pressures of early-age education, improving talents, organized sports and creating impressive resumes takes away from the innocence and creativity children thrive upon. Pierce suggests that moral values have become optional as children turn to the media and their peers for guidance as a result of a household with two working parents, who are often too busy for adequate family time. The definition of a nuclear family has changed in the past two decades to include mothers who seek fulfillment in the workplace rather than their homes, single parent families as a result of teen and out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and the increasing divorce rate. These social issues directly affect children as mothers are contributing to their family's financial wellbeing, rather than satisfying parent-child relationships. According to Pierce, this model for the self-fulfilled mother is supported by the media's portrayal of powerful women in the corporate world and popular opinion that mothers should be free from guilt of leaving their duties at home. The data presented by the media on the effects of two working parents is a seemingly reasonable situation for families, yet the figures are often misleading: as Pierce's research points out, many of the so-called `working mothers' hold part time jobs, have flexible hours, or work from home and are therefore a constant presence in her child's life and providing at-home care rather than institutionalized. She argues that many daycares promote `early learning', which often is not age appropriate, and sheds light that although several centers may be high quality, no child will receive the same love and trust that a parent can provide. Many psychological problems arise from the abandonment of infants and young children to daycare and early learning centers that create adolescent and adult disorders. Pierce gathers many scientific studies and includes them in her text, making the information available and understandable to the reader. She also provides comprehensive examples of worldly political and psychological trends that have influenced popular thought, such as the Soviet Revolution, which placed focus on the community rather than families, and the justification of any and all choices in our current cultural relativism. Furthermore, the text cites specific familial examples of various interviews conducted by Pierce, and even personal accounts from her experience as a `working' mother. "Ships Without a Shore" gives a voice to the mothers who fight the pressure to return to the workforce; those who are ignored because popular opinion is much easier to accept than the truth that is hard to hear. Anne Pierce reminds parents that child

Summary Statement: A Very Important Book -- A Must Read

"Ships Without a Shore" by Anne Pierce PhD is a unique and much needed book about the state of parenting today. Mainstream parenting as it is being done right now is analyzed thoroughly, that is, the lifestyle of babies and children raised in daycare and toddlers taking classes and doing sports, children being raised in institutions (including public schools), children busy with after school programs, extra-curricular activities after school and on weekends and summers filled with camps. The author asks questions about how the children, the products of their parent's lifestyle choices, are turning out. With many citations to studies, the answer is that today's teens are already in a disaster state and todays youngest are headed down a sad road also. By looking at the results of these parenting choices such as the rising rates of alcohol and drug abuse, rising eating disorders, rising self-mutilation, rising child and teen depression rates, suicidal teens and detached apathetic children and teens, the author asks how they got that way and the answer is that they are the products of their upbringing: they have been under-nurtured due to the parenting decisions and lifestyle choices of their parents. Yes, the children are suffering due to the choices that their parents made. Pierce looks back over history and seeks to find the answer to how we got here. Mothers of today who were happy with their own childhood usually choose a very different lifestyle for their own children. We who were raised in the 1970s and 1980s are being guided to parent our children very differently than we ourselves were parented. Why is that? How did we get to a place where we abandoned the typical way of parenting for thousands of years and jump to this other way? Pierce calls our modern day parenting a `social experiment'. No matter how much some would like to think that their lives are fantastic, if their children are turning out to be a mess then our society should be rethinking things. The author explains the history of America and changes brought on by feminism and moral relativism. The role of a woman in our society and the role of today's mother is analyzed including discussion of how a mother who chooses to stay home to raise her children is marginalized and shamed by society and the media. The skewing of statistics in order to lead the public to believe that more mothers of very young children is done intentionally by some in our society in order to push an agenda that working mothers are the norm. Another interesting topic is the uniqueness of males versus females, how the attempt to make our culture androgynous is hurting our society. Topics such as absentee fathers and divorce and the effects on the child are examined. Later, Pierce looks at Russia in the early 20th century and shows the effect of socialism and how it altered the family dynamic and the way children were brought up. Surprisingly, today's America resembles socialist Russia, and the negative out

Must-read for all parents and everyone who cares about America's children

Don't place your babies in daycare or sign your children up for a host of structured activities until you read this book. Incredibly well-researched and insightful, this book raises issues every parent needs to think through before going along with today's popularly accepted way of raising children. As Pierce says, "Our busy lives allow too little time to question whether all this busyness is necessary and whether the content of our children's education is good." The book is challenging, but very well-written, and provides an essential wake-up call for everyone who cares about America's children.