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An Intimate Understanding of America's Teenagers Shaking Hands with Aliens
Bruce J. Gevirtzman
ISBN: 0-313-34508-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-34508-1
288 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 8/30/2008
List Price: $19.95 (UK Sterling Price: £13.95)
Availability:
Media Type: Paperback
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • "Gevirtzman uses entertaining and enlightening student interviews, surveys, conversations, classroom discussions, and recreated scenarios from his four-decade teaching career to assist readers in better understanding contemporary adolescents."
    —VOYA     1/1/2009
  • "Gevirtzman understands adolescents. In this sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic, always informative work, the author (a high school English teacher who for years has been involved with adolescents in various capacities) introduces readers to the wonderful individuals he has come to know...A must read, this is a how-to manual for understanding adolescents and inviting them into adult life...Essential. All readers, all levels."
    —CHOICE     2/1/2009
  • "Bruce Gevirtzman shares the results of his years spent talking with teenagers about topics from life and lust to depression and death. Revealing honest, poignant words shared in conversations, classroom talk, interviews, surveys, and journals, Gevirtzman takes us inside the minds of today's youths, and also contrasts them with teenagers of decades past. Topics include teen thinking and secrets on issues from sex, drinking, and drugs, to peer pressure, self-imposed standards, and beliefs about what is important, and painful, in life."
    —Adolescence     6/26/2009
Description: Alicia is so obsessed with being popular, she does things that would shock her parents, if they knew. Hector is aware the gang that wants him to join may be the death of him, but he will not decline. Sam was a baseball star, but can't play the sport he loves anymore because he is wracked from football injuries, a sport his father will not let him quit. They are just a few of the teenagers that readers will meet, in this candid book authored by a 34-year veteran high school teacher. Voted Teacher of the Year and Coach of the Year, Bruce Gevirtzman shares with us the results of his years spent talking with teenagers about topics from life and lust to depression and death. Revealing honest, poignant words shared in conversations, classroom talk, interviews, surveys, and journals, Gevirtzman takes us inside the minds of today's youths, and also contrasts them with teenagers of decades past. Topics include teen thinking and secrets on issues from sex, drinking, and drugs to peer pressure, self-imposed standards, and beliefs about what is important, and painful, in life.

Including interviews with fellow teachers, Gevirtzman's book is threaded with one recurring truth: Sadly, instead of parents and teachers and lawmakers and the public looking out for our kids, today's kids are largely left to fend for themselves, he concludes. Not only will general readers and educators find great insight in this work, it will be of interest to students and scholars of adolescent psychology, clinical psychology, and social work.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
    Introduction
    Chapter 1: Im, Like, All
    Chapter 2: The Rebel Paradox
    Chapter 3: Mirror, Mirror
    Chapter 4: Lily Munster Or Whatevers Cool
    Chapter 5: The Anti-Midas Touch
    Chapter 6: Dumb Stuff
    Chapter 7: Athletes, Arrogance, and Angst
    Chapter 8: The Slime Who Hurt Our Kids
    Chapter 9: When Party Became a Verb
    Chapter 10: Snitchin Aint Bitchin
    Chapter 11: Hard Bodied, Soft Headed, and Stone Dead
    Chapter 12: Sex, Oral Sex, and What Is Is
    Chapter 13: Devouring Junk
    Chapter 14: They Bombed Hiroshima, Didnt They?
    Chapter 15: Good and Plenty
    Chapter 16: You Vil Go to Havid!
    Chapter 17: You Mean, When You Die, Youre Dead?
    Chapter 18: Its a Matter of Philosophy: Remedies x 10
    Chapter 19: Cant! Wont! Not!
    Chapter 20: When All Is Said and Done
    Notes
    Bibliography
    End Notes
About the Author: BRUCE J. GEVIRTZMAN is a high school English teacher who has also, across 34 years, served simultaneously as a sports and debate coach. Also Chief Playwright for Phantom Projects, an acclaimed youth theater group that has performed across several western states, Gevirtzman has authored and directed more than 30 stage productions. He has been featured in programs aired on NBC and PBS, and in the Los Angeles Times. Gevirtzman also runs workshops for educators focused on teen issues.
LCC Class: BF724
PDF Catalogs:
Praeger Public Library Spring 2009.pdf
Psychology Catalog 2008.pdf
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