Web sites: Child advocacy, children’s rights and positive discipline:
Websites, pages and media features on male sexual victimization and female perpetrated sexual assault
Books dealing with corporal punishment, positive discipline and child development
Books on child advocacy issues and childhood roots of violence in society
Resources on home schooling, unschooling and positive schooling
Books on boy’s issues:
Books on Male Sexual Victimization and Female Perpetrated Sexual Assault
Books Dealing with Child Abuse Using Gender-balanced, Non-Biased Scenarios
Autobiographies and Biographies: Stories of children who suffered severe abuse
Books on Adoption and Attachment Issues

Resources and Links

Web sites: Child advocacy, children’s rights and positive discipline:

"http://www.nospank.net"
Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education (PTAVE)
Executive Director Jordan Riak is a passionate child advocate and his site is a no-nonsense, matter-of-fact approach to the subject of corporal punishment. An excellent resource on political, personal, ethical, psychological, medical, sexual & religious issues involved in the corporal punishment of children.

"http://www.stophitting.com"
EPOCH-USA End Physical Punishment of Children
A program of the Center for Effective Discipline A world-wide movement "committed to ending corporal punishment of children through education and legal reforms".

"http://www.psychohistory.com"
The Institute for Psychohistory
A global historical look at violence and aggression and its roots in child maltreatment

"http://www.alcade.net"
The International Youth Rights Action Alliance

"http://www.neverhitachild.org"
A great site with a wealth of information and links on the ethical reasons why children should not be hit.

"http://www.janebluestein.com"
Instructional Support Services, Inc.
A program of the Center for Effective Discipline Jane Bluestein has written a variety of helpful parenting resources that support positive, non-violent discipline- purchase them at this link!

"http://www.geocities.com/hutch_202/index.phpl"
 A "no spanking" page from one of the many members of the worldwide movement to end corporal punishment of children

"http://www.nopunish.net"
 Parenting Without Punishing

Author and revolutionary child advocate, Norm Lee, is one of the original early pioneers of positive, non-violent parenting. He also worked with educator and author, John Holt, on empowering parents to rescue their children from the clutches of compulsory school in order to help them discover the joys of learning at home. Norm Lee’s book, Parenting Without Punishing, as well as his bold newsletter and child advocacy petition, Step Up, can be accessed through his website.

Natural Child Project
Jan Hunt, M.Sc., Director
"http://www.naturalchild.org/"

Christians for Nonviolent Parenting
"http://nospank.net/cnpindex.php"

Nurturing Our Families
Nurturing Our Spirited Children
"http://www.nurturingourfamilies.com/"

People Opposed to Paddling Students
Jimmy Dunne, President
"www.nospankingzone.org"

The Free Child Project
"http://freechild.org/allies_of_youth.htm"

Taking Children Seriously
"http://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/node.php?id=13"

Parenting In Jesus' Footsteps
"http://parentinginjesusfootsteps.org"
A Christian Parenting website emphasizing a nurturing, non-violent model of parenting. This website also features a petition for those who support the abolishment of corporal punishment of children.

Checkmate
"http://www.checkmatenow.org/"
A peace organization headed by Mitch Hall; this organization recognizes the abolishment of corporal punishment of children as a necessary step to achieving world peace.

Haley's Rights
"http://www.haleysrights.org"
An organization for chilren's rights.

Family Friendly Fun
"http://www.haleysrights.org"
Family Friendly Fun is a web resource that "offers family fun and family health resources to enhance the quality of family life.

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Websites, pages and media features on male sexual victimization
& female perpetrated sexual assault

"http://www.VIP-NH.org/"

"http://www.malesurvivor.org/"

"http://www.igc.org/spr/"

"http://incestabuse.about.com/cs/malesurvivors/index.php?once=true&"

"http://www.travel-net.com/~pater/invis-3.htm"
(Facts and Stats on Male Victimization and Female Perpetration)

"http://www.s-t.com/daily/07-96/07-15-96/c05wn074.htm"

"http://www.vix.com/menmag/panosumm.htm"
(Sobering Statistics and Victim Reports)

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Books dealing with corporal punishment, positive discipline and child development

The Continuum Concept  by Jean Liedloff
Revolutionary homeschool advocate and child advocate, John Holt, stated "If the world could be saved by a book, this just might be the book". Educates readers to the agony excperienced by infants who are not held continuously, and who are allowed to "cry it out" alone. Discusses what the culture of the Yequana people can teach our society about the roots of emptiness, additction, aggression, mental illness and excessive neediness and how attachment parenting can remedy these devistating social ailments.

Eliminating Corporal Punishment: The Way Forward to Constructive Child Discipline  Edited by Stuart N. Hart, with Joan Durrant, Peter Newell and F. Clark Power
This revolutionary text, put out by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), calls for a world wide end to corporal punishment of children based on The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by 192 countries. Only the United States and Somalia have refused to ratify this important children's rights treaty. This collection of powerful research papers emphatically asserts the human rights of the child and how many world wide cultures and governments, especially the United States, fail to afford children the most basic right to bodily integrity. This book is required reading for anyone in the fields of mental health, law, activism, education and politics

Parenting Without Punishing by Norm Lee
An on-line book about the detriments to children of punishment and how parents can guide children in a loving, respectful, non-violent manner. Read it at: http://www.nopunish.net/pwp-ch1.htm.

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Books on child advocacy issues and childhood roots of violence in society

Eliminating Corporal Punishment: The Way Forward to Constructive Child Discipline  Edited by Stuart N. Hart, with Joan Durrant, Peter Newell and F. Clark Power
This revolutionary text, put out by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), calls for a world wide end to corporal punishment of children based on The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by 192 countries. Only the United States and Somalia have refused to ratify this important children's rights treaty. This collection of powerful research papers emphatically asserts the human rights of the child and how many world wide cultures and governments, especially the United States, fail to afford children the most basic right to bodily integrity. This book is required reading for anyone in the fields of mental health, law, activism, education and politics

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Resources on home schooling, unschooling and positive schooling:

Creating Emotionally Safe Schools  by "http://www.janebluestein.com"
A must for any parent concerned about their school child's physical and emotional well being. This resource exposes the overlooked practices common in our schools which put youth at risk for emotional and physical harm. Dr. Bluestein is one of the only professional authors brave enough to address the problem of school teachers who deny or ration a child's use of the toilet.

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto
This is a revolutionary manifesto for child-directed, home-based education. As a seasoned educator, John Taylor Gatto tells it like it is for the millions of apathetic children trapped in the decaying, outmoded institution known as traditional schooling. John Taylor Gatto candy-coats nothing as he challenges the system and demands that today’s approach to education be revolutionized to reflect modern society, and the neglected educational needs of children. Before you become convinced that your school-hating child is "learning disabled", read this book!

The Exhausted School by John Taylor Gatto
Another sobering, scathing criticism of traditional schooling by John Taylor Gatto.

A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling by John Taylor Gatto

The Underground History of American Education: An Intimate Investigation into the Prison of Modern Schooling by John Taylor Gatto

How Children Fail by John Holt
The classic from the 1960’s that blasted a hole through the sacred myth that school teaches children.

Teach Your Own by John Holt and Patrick Farenga
A (revised) classic that put the power in the hands of parents to rescue their children from governmental control so that they might facilitate a real education for their children at home.

Instead of Education by John Holt

The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith
A must for any parent concerned with their child’s education- this book makes the most compelling case for home-based, child-directed learning . After reading this book, you will catch a glimpse at how much traditionally schooled children are missing out on developing their talents, passions and potentials... This book will explain how to revive your child’s passion for learning, how to strengthen family bonds and how to get started at "unschooling" your child. Highly recommended.

DeSchooling Our Lives by Matt Hern
Excellent collection of essays from various voices and viewpoints in the world of self-directed learning, from unschooling to democratic schooling.

The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn
A bold resource to help young people question the value of schooling vs. self directed learning. A true, albiet controversial, liberating piece of child advocacy.

Life Learning (magazine)
http://www.lifelearningmagazine.com
An infectious, addictive magazine devoted to self-directed learning. Order the magazine through the link provided.

Growing Without Schooling (magazine)
http://www.holtgws.com/gws.htm#STATUS
http://www.fun-books.com/gws.htm
The original homeschooling magazine originally founded by John Holt in 1977, which is, unfortunately, no longer in print. Back issues can still be ordered through the links provided.

Homeschooling for Success: How Parents Can Create a Superior Education for Their Child by Rebecca Kochenderfer and Elizabeth Kanna

The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning by Etta Kralovec and John Buell

The Quality School: Managing Students Without Coercion by William Glasser, M.D.
How schools can guide and discipline children without punishment or inhumane practices.

Teaching As a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner
A manifesto from 1969 that offered pertinent evidence that the cirriculums and "teaching" methods employed by schools do not teach children, and in fact, destroy their thinking process and provide the antithesis of a democratic society.

The Happy Child: Changing the Heart of Education by Steven Harrison
A sobering book about how traditional schools damage the spirit, heart and soul of children through controlling, punitive tactics and totalitarian, anti-democratic environments. A strong call for democratic, child-lead community learning for children in place of schools.

Summerhill School by A. S. Neill
A classic book about one of the first democratic schools. Discusses first hand how democracy can work in a school setting when children are not subordinated to adults, and when children have equal say and responsibility for decisions made about school rules, conduct expectations, curriculum and which teachers are worth keeping.

Challenging Assumptions In Education by Wendy Priesnitz
A manifesto for self-directed, home-based and community-based learning. This book challenges the misassumptions that children learn anything of value to their lives in the force-fed, oppressive environment of schools, as well as the misassumtption that children need such an environment in order to "get an education".

In Their Own Way: Discovering and Encouraging Your Child's Multiple Intelligences by Thomas Armstrong
Traditional schools only "teach" according to two intelligence styles. If your child is creative, spirited, hands-on and/or needs to move around and talk in order to learn, his/her intelligence style does not fit the manner in which traditional schools teach. If this is your child, instead of believeing the school's rhetoric that your child is "learning disabled" or in need of medication, read this book and find that the schools are teaching disabled and in need of complete overhaul.

Free Schools, Free People by Ron Miller
A research textbook about the "free school" movement of the late 1960's, and why democratic, self-directed education was shot down in favor of totalitarian schools in the late 1970's and 1980's.

Challenging The Giant: The Best of SKOLE The Journal of Alternative Education by Mary M. Leue
Out of print, but possible to find used -- a great collection of articles by a variety of advocates of alternative education and homeschooling, including John Gatto and Pat Farenga.

The Schools Our Children Deserve by Alfie Kohn

What Happened to Recess and Why Are Our Children Struggling in Kindergarten? by Susan Ohanian
A scathing testimony to the damage done to children by standardized testing, as well as to the shocking developmental inappropriateness of standardized testing.

Dangerous Schools: What we can do about the physical and emotional abuse of our children by Irwin Hyman and Pamela Snook

Guerrilla Learning: How to give your kids a real education with or without school by Grace Llewellyn and Amy Silver

Walking On Water: Reading Writing and Revolution by Derrick Jensen

The Odysseus Group- John Taylor Gatto
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/
"Challenging the Myths of Modern Schooling"

John Holt Growing Without Schooling
http://www.holtgws.com/index.php

Family Unschoolers Network
http://www.unschooling.org/

Educational Heretics Press
http://edheretics.gn.apc.org/

The Education Revolution
http://www.educationrevolution.org/
"The Alternative Education Resource Organization"

Unschooling.com
http://www.unschooling.com/

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) "http://www.naeyc.org"
A good source for high standards in the classroom . Good early childhood programs strive for NAEYC accreditation as a testimony to quality.

Toxic Psychiatry by Peter Breggin
This book, written by an M.D., gives a chilling account of how often authorities are quick to medicate children, especially boys, for behavior that is a direct result of poor parenting in the home and poor teaching in the schools.

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Books on boy’s issues:

The Men They Will Become : The Nature and Nurture of Male Character "http://www.elinewberger.com"
A necessity for anyone concerned with the plight of American boys.  This candid resource exposes our culture's emotional neglect of boys, the punitive, anti-male ways in which boys are treated by caretakers in our society, and the consequences that our culture has reaped as a result. Chapter six deals specifically with inductive discipline, providing a great resource for researchers, students and caretakers who are seeking alternatives to punishment.

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Books on Male Sexual Victimization and Female Perpetrated Sexual Assault

Abused Boys: The Neglected Victims of Sexual Abuse by Mic Hunter-
(A must have for anyone)

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Books Dealing with Child Abuse Using Gender-balanced, Non-Biased Scenarios

The Healing Power of Play by Eliana Gil
(Play therapy book with gender-balanced scenarios)

No Such Thing As A Bad Kid by Charles D. Appelstein
(Positive discipline- gender-balanced scenarios)

Innocence Destroyed by Jean Renvoze
(Educational text, gender-balanced scenarios)

Toxic Parents by Susan Forward
(For victims of all forms of child abuse- gender-balanced scenarios)

The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Affects of Cruel Parenting by Alice Miller
Miller's latest indictment on the generational scourge of child maltreatment and its subsequent deleterious affects on the developing human being. This book challenges adult trauma survivors to examine what the body's medical symptoms are trying to reveal about the realities of childhood abuse and the costs of clinging onto toxic attachments with parents who remain emotionally dangerous.

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Autobiographies and Biographies: Stories of children who suffered severe abuse

A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer
The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer
A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer
Three heartwrenching personal stories of Dave Pelzer, a remarkable young man who managed to survive severe physical and psychological torture by his mother in the 1970's. A Child Called "It" recounts his history up until his rescue; The Lost Boy discusses his journey through the harsh world of foster care and his eventual discovery of loving foster parents and mentors. A Man Named Dave takes readers through Dave's young adulthood. These books are a must for anyone who has, works with or cares about children.

Death From Child Abuse... And No One Heard By Eve Krupinski and Dana Weikel
A horrific account of the severe torture and murder of five year old Ursula Sunshine Assaid in 1982 by her mother and her mother's boyfriend. This book is written from Ursula's perspective, as if she was the author, giving harrowing insight into the child's perspective and pain. This book is difficult to find and may be out of print. However, if you can locate the book, it is strongly recommended.

They Cage The Animals At Night by Jennings Michael Burch
This is the autobiography of Jennings Michael Burch, a child who was abandoned repeatedly by his mother to the hellish clutches of orphanages run by Catholic nuns in the 1950's. Jennings suffered severe physical and emotional abuse, as well as sexually abusive humiliation, by those entrusted to his care; the exception was a nurturing young sister who gave Jennings a lifeline that helped the innocent boy survive his tortures: A small stuffed animal named "Doggie". Jennings was repeatedly moved to and from home and to different orphanages, foster homes and schools, making any sense of stability or relationship nearly impossible. Attempts to run away to escape his torturers resulted in further placements. Jennings finally finds the love he deserves in a father figure. Readers will be in awe that a child so betrayed and beaten down had such love in his heart. This book is strongly recommended for all parents, teachers and those who work in the foster care system.

Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra
An autobiography about the lives of four adolescent boys who suffered rape, sexual torture and physical abuse at the hands of guards while confined to a detention institution. Lorenzo Carcaterra recounts the lives and the friendship of he and his three friends, Michael, John and Tommy, and how a childish prank-turned-serious sentenced them to the end of innocence in the Wilkinson Home for Boys.Years after they left behind the hell of the detention home, young adult gangsters, John and Tommy, run into Nokes, their primary torturer, in a bar in 1985. They confront him, but he shows no empathy or remorse for his rapes of the four boys. In a rage, John and Tommy, who were packing heat, murder Nokes. Lorenzo and Michael, who, unlike John and Tommy, had not fallen into a life of crime, set up an elaborate scheme to not only exonerate John and Tommy of murder charges, but to expose the surviving pedophiles from the Wilkinson Home for Boys. This story was made into a major motion picture in 1996. Both the movie and the book are strongly recommended for all professionals in the mental health, juvenile justice and social work fields.

The Magic Castle by Carole Smith
A very dark and heavy account of the life of Alex Smith, a 10 year old torture victim who was adopted by the author in the 1980's. Carole Smith describes what it was like to nurture, love and parent a child and adolescent who was severely mentally ill. Before he came to Carole, Alex was ritualistically sexually, physically and psychologically tortured by his biological mother and other members of a Satanic cult. The author describes how shortly after he came to live with her, it slowly unfolded that Alex was suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder. The book describes the process of healing for Alex through his young adulthood and how Carole parented and nurtured him as he behaviorally manifested his trauma on a daily basis. This book is recommended to all foster and adoptive parents, as well as to social workers.

The God Squad by Paddy Doyle
An autobiography of a four year old child abandoned to one of Ireland's "Industrial Schools" (orphanages) run by Catholic nuns in the 1950's. Paddy writes about how years of physical abuse and incidents of sexual abuse by brutal nuns in the Industrial school led to physical manifestations of his trauma. Shortly after Paddy began to exhibit trouble walking at the age of 9, he was abandoned by the nuns to a series of hospital confinements until his adolescence. Paddy's feet and legs begin to lock up, disfigure and involuntarily spasm overtime, and numerous botched attempts at brain surgery fail to correct the unexplained problem. During these hospital stays and relocations, he repeatedly loses nurturing caregivers. Paddy gives reader a happy-ending epilogue of how he managed to find adoptive parents and stability in his mid-teens, as well as a successful adulthood. If you can locate this book, it is a shocking testament to how a ward of the state was used as a medical guinea pig, as well as to the horrors inflicted on children by the Catholic nuns in the 1950's in Ireland.

Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
The classic 1973 biography of Sybil Isabel Dorsett, a young woman who experienced chronic and severe ritualistic torture in childhood at the hands of her brutal mother, consequently causing Sybil to develop one of the most severe cases of Dissociative Identity Disorder on record. The story of Sybil was also made into a movie. This book is difficult to read, but is an important documentary of the realities of child abuse and its consequences. This classic should be required reading for all professionals in the fields of mental health and social work.

A Rock and A Hard Place by Anthony Godby Johnson
This book is subject to much controversy. It is strongly suspected by many reporters that a woman claiming to be the adoptive mother of Anthony Godby Johnson deceived many authors and celebrities into believing that they were conversing with the gifted 14 year old boy. News articles accuse the mother of Anthony Godby Johnson of writing this book as Anthony, as well as falsely claiming that the child was dying of the AIDS virus. Although it is an excellent story of a child who triumphs over a severely abusive history, there are accusations that Anthony Godby Johnson does not actually exist, as no one has claimed to have met him. Although it is unknown to ChildAdvocate.org whether this book is authentic or a hoax, it serves in either case as a story of how adoption can heal a child severely traumatized by abuse.

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Books on Adoption and Attachment Issues