Kind and Just Parent : The Children of Juvenile Court - 97 edition

Ayers, William : University of Illinois

William Ayers is a longtime teacher and activist, an award-winning education writer and reformer, and a professor at the University of Illinois. He and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, live in Chicago.

"This book should be required reading for the 286 members of the House of Representatives who, in early May, voted to spend $1.5 billion more on punishment without rehabilitation for the serious offenders among the 2.7 million young people who are arrested every year...Ayers' book does for incarcerated kids in 'the largest juvenile jail in the world' what Studs Terkel has done for the city's working folks, what Alex Kotlowitz has done for the residents of its housing projects and what Renny Golden has done for the disposable children in its welfare system...Ayers has an ear for dialogue and a sharp eye for the day-to-day rhythms of an institution. Writing in a vivid and spare prose, he captures the scared and sullen kids shuffling into court 'shackled one to another with leg irons'..."

--Anthony M. Platt, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Most of us know juvenile criminals only from daily headlines, and the images are extreme and violent: predators and even "superpredators." Distorted and incomplete, these pictures shape the way Americans think and feel about city kids, poor kids, and children of color.

A Kind and Just Parent gives us a transformative view of kids caught up in the justice system. William Ayers has spent five years as a teacher and observer in Chicago's Juvenile Court prison, the nation's first institution of juvenile justice and the largest, founded by legendary reformer Jane Addams to act as a "kind and just parent" for kids in need. Confused and confusing, today it epitomizes of the way American justice deals with children.

Through Ayers's brilliant portraits, we see young people telling their stories, analyzing their situations, and thinking about their futures. His passionate arguments--about the media, neglect, rehabilitation, and more--ask us to compare the realities he shows with the images we have; the results are startling.

William Ayers is as sensitive and gifted a chronicler as he is a teacher. His book is Dickensian in its tragic, maddening detail and dimension; yet it is strangely hopeful. It is the perfect celebration of the court's centennial."

--Studs Terkel

At last a heroic and insightful account of what poor young people have had to endure in the Cook County Juvenile Court system. William Ayers knows--as teacher, parent and community leader. He spreads the heroics around to other tireless teachers, to overburdened judges, social workers, and staff. And especially to the youth. Ayers knows this courage can make all the difference. But he also understands there needs to be a thorough inside-out transformation of the 'system,' worth of any child's dreams, capacities, and beauty. Worthy of any community grounded on justice and respect.
Ayers, I salute you. Your words cut true. And no one can escape their clarion message."

--Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in LA

"Ayers uses the techniques of Terkel, Kozol, Kidder, and Kotlowitz to give voice to young people usually rendered silent by a haze of fear and stereotype, challenging the shockingly unscientific "superpredator" theories of such academics as DiIulio and Wilson, and urging readers (and voters and taxpayers) to ask whether this well-intentioned but chaotic mess would be "good enough" for their own kids."

--Mary Carrol, Booklist (starred review)

Beacon Press Web Site, Aug., 2001