Since 1990, the number of mandated vaccines has increased dramatically. Today, a fully vaccinated child will have received nearly three dozen vaccinations between birth and age six. Along with the increase in number has come a growing wave of concern among parents about the unintended side effects of vaccines. In Vaccine, Mark A. Largent explains the history of the debate and identifies issues that parents, pediatricians, politicians, and public health officials must address. Nearly 40% of American parents report that they delay or refuse a recommended vaccine for their children. Despite assurances from every mainstream scientific and medical institution, parents continue to be haunted by the question of whether vaccines cause autism. In response, health officials herald vaccines as both safe and vital to the public's health and put programs and regulations in place to encourage parents to follow the recommended vaccine schedule. For Largent, the vaccine-autism debate obscures a constellation of concerns held by many parents, including anxiety about the number of vaccines required (including some for diseases that children are unlikely ever to encounter), unhappiness about the rigorous schedule of vaccines during well-baby visits, and fear of potential side effects, some of them serious and even life-threatening. This book disentangles competing claims, opens the controversy for critical reflection, and provides recommendations for moving forward.

The Salk vaccine seemed like a miracle to parents whose children were threatened with the scourge of polio. With its protection from polio, came also a story line-there were heroic researchers who would use science to protect us from epidemics and perhaps even eradicate disease. For most people, vaccines have become the magic bullets for dealing with dangerous diseases. The continuing quest for new vaccines, including an HIV/AIDS vaccine, despite technical, epidemiological, and social obstacles, suggests the abiding power of this narrative.

The author examines four cases that span the twentieth century--diphtheria, rubella, pertussis, and HIV/AIDS. Each case challenges the reader to examine how the values we attribute to vaccines influence their use. Diphtheria vaccination brought laboratory science into an existing narrative based on earlier vaccines. With rubella vaccine, researchers efficiently responded to an epidemic of birth defects while subtly changing the relationship between vaccination recipients and beneficiaries. Opposition to pertussis vaccine from average Americans created a narrative crisis, in which faith in vaccination as a whole seemed to be at risk. With more recent vaccines, including a hoped-for HIV/AIDS vaccine, the persistent cultural narrative continues to encourage vaccine development and use.

Agrippina Vaganova (1879-1951) is revered as the visionary who first codified the Russian system of classical ballet training. The Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, founded on impeccable technique and centuries of tradition, has a reputation for elite standards, and its graduates include Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova, and Diana Vishneva. Yet the "Vaganova method" has come under criticism in recent years.

In this absorbing volume, Catherine Pawlick traces Vaganova's story from her early years as a ballet student in tsarist Russia to her career as a dancer with the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet to her work as a pedagogue and choreographer. Pawlick then goes beyond biography to address Vaganova's legacy today, offering the first-ever English translations of primary source materials and intriguing interviews with pedagogues and dancers from the Academy and the Mariinsky Ballet, including some who studied with Vaganova herself.

Les auteurs proposent des modalités d'intervention actuelles et novatrices adaptées aux besoins particuliers des élèves en difficulté et précisent certains des facteurs déterminant de la réussite ou de l'échec des jeunes tant au plan social que scolaire.

Cet ouvrage scrute les débats méconnus qui ont marqué l’époque de l’émergence du marxisme et du marginalisme, du déclin de l’influence de Ricardo, mais aussi, dans l’ombre, de la naissance du courant néo-ricardien. Débats rythmés par la parution des livres du Capital et centrés sur la question de la valeur et des rapports d’échange. Un éclairage différent est ainsi jeté sur les problèmes que posent les rapports entre l’analyse marxiste et l’économie politique.

Devons-nous surveiller les activités de nos adolescents sur Internet et dans les forums de discussion, ou respecter leur vie privée? Faut-il répondre avec franchise aux questions que nos adolescents nous posent au sujet de notre sexualité ou de notre expérience éventuelle de la drogue? Peut-on exiger d’un adolescent qu’il exprime sa gratitude? Ou qu’il passe plus de temps en famille? Est-il approprié de discuter de nos sentiments et de nos émotions avec nos adolescents? Un livre qui répond aux questions que tous les parents d’adolescents se posent, et qui met l’accent sur ce que les autres livres sur le sujet ont tendance à négliger: comment instaurer un dialogue qui favorise le respect mutuel.

Les enfants peuvent-ils parler des sentiments et des valeurs dès l'âge de 2 ans ? Bien sûr ! Mais qu'est-ce qu'un sentiment, une valeur, une valeur morale ? Qu'est-ce que l'empathie ? L'auteur nous invite à réfléchir tout en donnant des conseils pratiques sur la façon de développer un jugement sûr chez nos enfants.

This book addresses the key issues of reinstating the veritable nature of African values and most specifically those of the Bamilikes that had been discarded since Western Christianity came into contact with black Africa considered animist. This task is warranted by the malaise experienced in churches by some African Christians. This is further made necessary and even pressing by the sense failure that the first wave of evangelisation, which has proven incapable of incorporating the Words of God in the African religious belief systems. This analysis takes into account the exigencies of the present context. The media as well as educated men talk ceaselessly of globalisation and the global village. The question we should be asking is to know if globalisation can be attained without due consideration of African values. This work aims at showing the scientific, sociological and cultural bases of African values so far castigated by colonial discourse. One of the ways to make this known is to expose it, analyse it and show its importance at various levels.

Can public schools still educate America’s children, particularly in poor and working class communities? Many advocates of school reform have called for dismantling public education in favor of market-based models of reform such as privatization and vouchers. By contrast, this pathfinding book explores how community organizing and activism in support of public schools in one of America’s most economically disadvantaged regions, the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, has engendered impressive academic results. Dennis Shirley focuses the book around case studies of three schools that have benefited from the reform efforts of a community group called Valley Interfaith, which works to develop community leadership and boost academic achievement. He follows the remarkable efforts of teachers, parents, school administrators, clergy, and community activists to take charge of their schools and their communities and describes the effects of these efforts on students’ school performance and testing results. Uniting gritty realism based on extensive field observations with inspiring vignettes of educators and parents creating genuine improvement in their schools and communities, this book demonstrates that public schools can be vital "laboratories of democracy," in which students and their parents learn the arts of civic engagement and the skills necessary for participating in our rapidly changing world. It persuasively argues that the American tradition of neighborhood schools can still serve as a bedrock of community engagement and academic achievement.

The son of Hispanic immigrants, Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez grew up in gang-plagued Gary, Indiana. With strong family support, he managed to beat the odds, graduating with distinction from Indiana University, finishing law school after a rough start, and maturing into a successful attorney and officeholder. Yet there was more in store for Roy. Ready to start a family and embark on a career as a deputy prosecutor, he was stricken with Guillain-Barré syndrome. How he coped with and eventually overcame this debilitating affliction is a compelling part of his story. The experience steeled him to meet future crises with wisdom, perspective, and grit. An inspiring true story, Valor is also a significant and original contribution to the social, ethnic, and political history of Indiana.