cover image Today's Children

Today's Children

David A. Hamburg. Crown Publishers, $25 (376pp) ISBN 978-0-8129-1914-1

Poverty, divorce and drug abuse are some of the obstacles to raising healthy children in America discussed here by Carnegie Corporation president Hamburg, who handily summarizes solutions offered by recent research and programs. There are many good suggestions. Hamburg, a psychiatrist, stresses the need for support systems and an overhaul of younger adolescent education, and offers ways to improve prenatal care, day care, drug abuse prevention and sex education. But he goes over old ground when discussing such problems as the breakdown of the family. Few toes are stepped on in the book. Hamburg takes no stand on providing birth control and abortion counseling. This is a useful guide which could have been more daring. (Jan.)