21st Century Children - Raising Boys and Girls in The Modern World

Date: 10th September 2011    Time: 10:00am - 6:00pm

Venue: Cambridge University - Lady Mitchell Hall

Instructor: Sue Palmer (Author of Toxic Childhood)

Bonus Guest Lecture: Raising Children in Islam

Register: http://www.21stcenturychildren.org.uk/

The world may have changed beyond recognition in the last three decades, but children haven’t changed at all. For healthy development, they still need the same basic ingredients that have helped lucky children through the ages grow up bright, balanced and fit to face the challenges of adult life.

Is 21st century life damaging our children? Huge changes in adult lifestyles have affected the way we look after children, both at home and in school. This seminar – based on the 12 years’ research behind Toxic Childhood, 21st Century Boys, and 21st Century Girls – looks at how a toxic mix of side-effects of social and cultural change is affecting the development of a growing number of children.

The seminar also considers the way modern lifestyles impact differently on boys and girls, driving a gender gap which is damaging to the children themselves and society as a whole. Commercial forces unite with peer pressure to push girls towards an objectified sexuality at an increasingly early age, and boys towards computer games and internet porn. With virtual communication substituting for real life interaction even among pre-teen children, young people are less well-equipped to communicate face to face, making relationships between them and between them and adults increasingly fragile.

This groundbreaking seminar – aimed at parents, teachers and anyone interested in the welfare of young people – offers concerned adults suggestions for tackling the social, cultural and educational factors underlying these modern developments, to help all children grow up bright, balanced and confident to reach their full potential.

Sue Palmer has written more than 250 books, educational TV programmes and software packages on aspects of literacy and modern childhood. She is the author of the revolutionary book Toxic Childhood: How The Modern World Is Damaging Our Children And What We Can Do About It. Please visit her website http://www.suepalmer.co.uk for more information.