Quiet Desperation
The Effects of Competition in School on Abused and Neglected Children
By (author) Gerald W. Neal
Not available to order
Publication date:
22 April 2008Length of book:
136 pagesPublisher
Hamilton BooksISBN-13: 9781461626749
With standardized testing and predetermined subgroups garnering the attention of educational leaders, abused and neglected children have fallen deeper into the crevice of the system. For years these children have been ignored, save the obvious, visible bruises or child-initiated confessions. Because researching children is difficult without parental consent, it is nearly impossible to expose this problem with any level of legitimacy. By combining research from scientific research and the humanities, autobiographical flashbacks fuse with narratives that vividly detail the author's disturbing encounters with abused children as a school administrator. The effect is the realization that public schools unknowingly feed on weaker children beneath the awning of accountability.
Dr. Neal's writing touched me in that place that I was touched so many years ago when I decided to make child abuse prevention my life's work. The images he describes are accurate, poignant, and so insightful. I kept thinking that every teacher should be required to read this book so that he or she can get in touch again with the motivations and yearnings that made them select this field of work. We thank him for bringing so much of himself to the task of writing the book and for being a powerful voice for vulnerable children.