Dangerous Adolescents, Model Adolescents: Shaping the Role and Promise of Education (Perspectives in Law & Psychology Book 13)

Teachers make a difference. As someone who grew up in one of the po- est and rural areas of a poor state and ended up attending elite graduate and professional schools, I have much to credit my public school teachers. My teachers sure struggled much to teach an amazingly wide variety of students from different backgrounds, abilities, and hopes. Given that re- ity, which undoubtedly repeats itself across the United States and globe, one would think that I should be quite hesitant to criticize a system that produces countless grateful students and productive citizens. I agree. The pages that follow surely can be perceived as yet another attack on already much maligned schools that do produce impressive outcomes despite their limited resources, increased obligations, and the sustained barrage of attacks from competing interest groups. Some may even view the text as an affront to the inalienable rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit. Others surely could understand the analysis as another assault on our decentralized legal and school systems that should retain the right to balance the needs of communities, parents, schools, and students. I clearly did not intend, and do not see the ultimate result, as yet another diatribe on the manner teachers, parents and communities treat students. "Dangerous Adolescents, Model Adolescents explores what kinds of environments today's adolescents need and how teachers, parents, and communities can shape those environments. It examines how adolescents and their environments can best be supported to effect the outcomes and ideals our society promises but does not always deliver. Roger J.R. Levesque, a psychologist and attorney, offers realistic directions for reform as he expertly blends legal, policy, and social science understandings of adolescents and schooling. This is not yet another attack on already maligned schools. The author recognizes that schools do produce impressive outcomes given their limited resources, increased obligations, and the sustained barrage of attacks from competing interests groups

This project is an attempt to understand what kind of environment today's adolescents need and what teachers, parents, and communities can do to address those needs. Further it examines how adolescents and their environments can best be supported to effect the outcomes and ideals our society promises but does not always deliver.
In this it is not yet another attack on already maligned schools that produce impressive outcomes despite their limited resources, increased obligations, and the sustained barrage of attacks from competing interest groups.

Education’s Role in Fostering Adolescents....Pages 3-12 Law and the Development of Public Education....Pages 13-62 Dangerous Adolescents....Pages 65-110 Model Adolescents....Pages 111-152 Thriving Adolescents....Pages 153-197 Ensuring the Promise of Education....Pages 201-227 Discusses what kind of environment is needed by today's adolescents and what teachers, parents, and communities can do to address those needs.