Customer Reviews

Free the Children!: Conflict Education for Strong, Peaceful Minds

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I've just finished reading Susan Gingras Fitzell's new book "Free the Children" and I have to say how much I enjoyed it. I should mention that I am a father of two, (Margaret 6 & Tommy 8) so the topics were especially relevant to me. To begin, the book does a great job of providing practical solutions and suggestions on the problems that every parent faces. Some areas that I especially appreciated were the topics of: - How to deal with bullies through role playing exercises. - How to understand the effect of media violence, and what you can do about it. - Empowering your child's sense of themselves through programs like Karate or Kung Fu. (With my own children it's been hiking and rock climbing, but finding & developing similar activities to build emotional discipline seems extremely important.) - How to adjust your response as a parent to be age appropriate for your child. - When do children understand how to empathize with others or deal from a perspective of justice. Ms. Fitzell's examples through out the book were very well thought out and helpful. Other aspects of the book that I really enjoyed were her emphasis on acting with "moral empathy". This point makes great intuitive sense and Ms. Fitzell brings it home with many examples of how it has to be reinforced. I also appreciated her ability to tie in so many other books and materials that I could explore on any one of the major topics. Speaking as a parent, I thought the book was very well written and relevant to the issues I face with my own children. I would recommend the book to others and I compliment Ms. Fitzell on a job well done.

Susan Fitzell's book is a clearly written, well thought out book that needs to be read by educators and parents who want to develop a kinder and more gentle society. I especially liked her discussion on JROTC because of the dangerous trend to militarize our schools. We have not learned the lessons of World War II and the militarization of youth by Germany and Japan. Our schools need to promote conflict resolution instead of indoctrinating children. Susan has the formula for world peace and justice.

After reading Susan Gingras Fitzell's book "Free The Children Conflict Education For Strong & Peaceful Minds" I realize that this is a book that I will keep close at hand so I can refer to it often as my children grow. Susan offer wonderful insights to what our children encounter and great ideas to help them resolve many of the different conflicts that they will inevitably come up against during their lives.

Susan relizes that, in our society, children can not be totally shielded by the violence that the media portrays as a normal part of life. While she stresses the importance of setting limitations to how much media violence our children are exposed to she knows that children are bound to be influenced by media violence. In order to counteract the desensitization to violence that happens to our children because of media Susan offers meaningful advice on ways to teach our children to think and feel emotionally, with conscience and knowing consequence.

"Free The Children", is organized in sections by ages so it is very easy to reference specific age groups and the unique conflict challenges that children may face at that age. In each section Susan offers helpful ideas and suggestions that will help children address the special conflict concerns that they may come up against. The Appendices in "Free The Children" are wonderful, quick resource tools either for reference or for use in the classroom. Susan also offers ideas on many additional resources that are available to help parents, teachers and children learn how to work together towards a peaceful society.

Thank you Susan for writting this book! It has supported many of my own beliefs and has given me new ideas about how to help children learn to be caring and compassionate individuals.

As the father of a teenage daughter just entering the "dating" stage and a son sitting on the near side of puberty, trying to test his mettle every day, I have found Ms. Fitzell's book to be a resource that I return to again and again.

As I read the book the first time, I found her advice and insight very applicable to the challenges and stresses facing our youth today. Now, I keep it at my desk and refer to it often, finding sense and (sometimes) solace in the stories and examples as I struggle with how to best deal with my own children in today's society.

As a parent looking for sensible advice about raising children in a violent society, this book has helped me to understand what my children are going through right now and shown me how to deal with them productively, too.

This book provides practical insight of implementing Terrence Webster-Doyles conflict resolution curriculum into schools. I am both a martial arts instructor and parent and found this book to be marginally useful in conflict resolution instruction. The author does provide extensive resources for further curriculum support and inquiry. The book is well organized with a generic section and then age specific sections allowing the reader to read and re-read the pertinent parts.

My main conflict with the book is her devotion of almost a half chapter of Junior Reserve Officer Training (JROTC) bashing based on superficial evidence and taking quotes out of context. The JROTC bashing is un-explainable, because she states that she is not anti-military and she does not bash other militaristic groups that target the same age groups, i.e. Boy Scouts, Military Acadamies, and Civil Air Patrol. She mentions the positive aspects of JROTC as delusions. I doubt that she is aware that Collin Powel, the main proponent in the last three presidential administrations for peaceful conflict resolution, is a product of JROTC. The twisting of facts in this section casts doubts on her conclusions in the other parts of the book. If she would have left this chapter out, I would have rated the book three stars.