Lives on the Edge: Single Mothers and Their Children in the Other America

Gracefully and forcefully written, this study charges that the male-dominated culture in the U.S. has always created myths that allow society to cast poor single mothers and their children into ``otherness.'' The most prevalent myth, according to Polakow, who teaches educational psychology and early childhood studies at Eastern Michigan University, is that poor people got that way because of their own sociocultural or psychological pathology. Our ``public policy of detachment,'' writes Polakow, stems from our historical attitudes about the nature of motherhood and childhood and about ``normal families,'' contentions Polakow substantiates in her interviews with women who tell horrifying stories of how they fared under our welfare system when in need. Polakow calls for an overhaul of this country's social policies to make health care, housing, child care allowances and parental leave mandatory entitlements for all provided by government. (Mar.)