Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), published by Thomson Gale on October 20, 2006. The length of the article is 592 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Ball to unmask power of mentoring.(Entertainment)(Committed Partners for Youth will auction trips, local celebrity events)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) (Newspaper)
Date: October 20, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Page: E14

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This digital document is an article from Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, published by U.S. Government Printing Office on April 4, 2005. The length of the article is 4000 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Remarks on the helping America's youth initiative.(Week Ending Friday, April 1, 2005)(Transcript)
Publication: Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (Newsletter)
Date: April 4, 2005
Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office
Volume: 41Issue: 13Page: 540(6)

Article Type: Transcript

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This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Vocational Behavior, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Using an experimental design with a sample of African-American high school students (n=94), this study examines the determinants of students' initial trust beliefs about adult mentors. Consistent with the model of initial trust formation, results indicate that both structural assurance beliefs and youth dispositions toward trust were positive, significant predictors of the belief in an adult mentor's benevolence, honesty, competence, and predictability. Mentor selection procedures were not related to any of the trust beliefs. Ethnic identity of the student was found to moderate the relation between two of these beliefs (competence and predictability) with racial similarity of the mentor and student. Contrary to expectations, African-American students with low ethnic identity believed that a White adult mentor would be more competent and predictable than students with high ethnic identity. Implications for work-based, adult-youth mentoring programs and future research are discussed. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

A Powerful Start for Mentoring Youth
No other book provides the passion and power for establishing mentoring connections for youth as this book. While not exactly a how-to-do-it book, it provides enough details about the "why" of mentoring and disinguishes clearly between mentoring that has value for youth versus other types of well-meaning approaches. Chapters are included by the most well-known leaders in the youth mentoring field, including Marc Freedman and Bonnie Benard, that are not only informative and inspiring, but can can easily yield guidance for anyone associated with mentoring youth. All the authors agree that the power of mentoring is not in the "program," but in the relationship. ... Read more

Product Description
Growing Godly Women is a blueprint for making a vital difference in a girl’s life through a mentoring relationship, providing her with crucial support and wisdom during her complex teen years. Stories, Scriptures, and biblical principles illustrate to Christian women how to comfort a teen and mentor her toward God’s plan. Chapters cover the qualities that make a good mentor, what makes girls tick, how to study the Bible with a teen girl, lessons for inner and outer beauty, and creating ties that bind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Mentoring Girls

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an effective way to mentor girls.The lady who wrote this book and created this process has thought it out thoroughly.

Good
This had some very useful ideas and some things that you should always keep in mind when dealing with teenage girls.I learned a lot.

HIGHLY Recommended for Youth Leaders
This book is partly memior, however, it really stimilated my creativity in coming up with new ways to meet the needs of young ladies.I found this book very encouraging and reminded me how important godly older women are to young ladies growing in their relationships with each other and Christ.

I DEFINITELY recommend this book for any woman who is a youth leader or has significant influence on the lives of young ladies.

Not what it claims to be....
The subtitle of this book is what caused me to buy it."A Christian woman's guide to mentoring teenage girls."I had been asked by a young woman in our church to mentor her through our 'coming of age' program and was seeking some resources, as I had never done it before.This book is really more of a memoir than a guidebook... and frankly, it is just terrible.The author has many years of experience, it is true, but never gives any nuts and bolts advice.Instead she wanders around the subject, throwing in seemingly unimportant annecdotes and stories.It is really, in my opinion, poorly written. But, for me, the biggest issue is that I didn't get any advice on mentoring my teen friend.My brief experience with mentoring shows that teens can be deeply spiritual beings.Instead of talking about ways to help a teen develop her spirituality, the author talks about having make-up parties and overnight social retreats. It was a waste of money. ... Read more

Product Description
The best-selling enfant terrible of the Reagan revolution offers advice to today's budding conservatives--the very people he sees as the true "radicals" of tomorrow

Dinesh D'Souza rose to national prominence as one of the founders of the Dartmouth Review, a leading voice in the rebirth of conservative politics on college campuses in the 1980s.

He fired the first popular shot against political correctness with his best-selling exposŽ Illiberal Education. Now, after serving as a Reagan White House staffer, the managing editor of Policy Review, and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution, he addresses the next generation in Letters to a Young Conservative. Drawing on his own colorful experiences, both within the conservative world and while skirmishing with the left, D'Souza aims to enlighten and inspire young conservatives and give them weapons for the intellectual battles that they face in high school, college, and everyday life. Letters to a Young Conservative also illuminates the enduring themes that for D'Souza anchor the conservative position: not "family values" or patriotism, but a philosophy based on natural rights and a belief in universal moral truths.

With a light touch, D'Souza shows that conservatism needn't be stodgy or defensive, even though it is based on preserving the status quo. To the contrary, when a conservative has to expose basic liberal assumptions to scrutiny, he or she must become a kind of imaginative, fun-loving, forward-looking guerrilla--philosophically conservative but temperamentally radical.

Among the topics Dinesh D'Souza covers in Letters to a Young Conservative:

Fighting Political Correctness

Authentic vs. Bogus Multiculturalism

Why Government Is the Problem

When the Rich Get Richer

How Affirmative Action Hurts Blacks

The Feminist Mistake

All the News That Fits

How to Harpoon a Liberal

The Self-Esteem Hoax

A Republican Realignment?

Why Conservatives Should Be Cheerful ... Read more

Customer Reviews (92)

Excellent Handbook for Young Conservatives
Being only 21 and stalwartly conservative, I bought this book to see what D'Souza has to say to people like me. Having read and enjoyed "Illiberal Education" and read and respectfully disagreed with "The Enemy at Home," I knew I was in for a treat whether I agreed with the book's content wholeheartedly or not.

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Not only is this book an excellent handbook for young conservatives, but it is also a primer on conservative ideas. I would recommend this book to not only every young conservative, but also to adults who are new conservatives and want to immerse themselves in conservative ideas.

The book can be dry in some portions but, by and large, it is a witty, well-written and fantastically readable book. While some may totally disagree with his, or aspects of his, ideology, I think it is a general consensus that Mr. D'Souza can actually write. As I have said before in other book reviews, it is supremely disconcerting to read books that are churned out by semi-literates--especially when they sell hundreds of thousands of copies and people fulsomely praise these authors as literary geniuses.

Nevertheless, this book has some very strong chapters. I found the chapter entitled "The Libertarian Temptation" to be exceptional. The main difference between conservatism and libertarianism is that the latter is a philosophy that is entirely devoid of morality and godliness. That is not to say that libertarians are licentious societal deviants, but their philosophy is at odds with the sentiment that morality ought to be enforced or legislated; they, rather jejunely, only focus on freedom from government. Conservatism, on the other hand, argues that there is a moral standard that ought to be enforced by the government in order to protect the freedom of the masses. Dinesh D'Souza does a magnificent job explaining this.

The other chapter I thoroughly enjoyed was "How to Harpoon a Liberal." I am from the school of thought that if you are going to effectively cut through the hegemonic dominance of liberalism and its ideas in the minds of people who have been heavily indoctrinated into it, you've got to cause some kind of intellectual trauma. Conservatives are fighting a losing battle if they think they can simply get their ideas across to the young liberals by simply writing tepidly erudite pieces. Liberalism is so pervasive that conservatives have to do some "shock the jock" writing in order to put out our ideas. Writers like Dinesh D'Souza and Ann Coulter manage to be erudite, yet simultaneously witty. It's for this reason that they are so dangerous to the left and are massively successful at gaining converts.

Although I enjoyed the book, there were a few portions where D'Souza's arguments left a little to be desired. For example, I found his chapter on gays/gay marriage to be particularly weak, inasmuch as it was based on a woman being able to tame a man and not on the more germane biological inconsistencies of homosexuality. That being said, I agreed with D'Souza's assessments.

The other area of contention that I had with D'Souza was his argument--in "A Republican Realignment?"--that the Republican Party should forget about blacks and focus on other ethnic groups, since blacks are more likely to assiduously vote Democratic. I found this argument to be dangerous as it encourages Republican laziness vis-à-vis the recruitment of blacks into the party, and reaching black neighborhoods--which is the precise reason for their aversion to the Republicans in the first place.

The reason the Republicans have had a difficult time capturing black votes is because they have capitulated to Democrats in the fight for black votes, which D'Souza further encourages them to do.

To the contrary, what Republicans need to do is get the message out to underclass black people that Democrats are causing their social ills and not remedying them. They need to find articulate orators who can go into black neighborhoods and inform them of the liberal conspiracy to keep them poor by addicting them to governmental crumbs, while blinding their eyes to the entrepreneurial and educational possibilities that America is replete with that would inevitably lift them out of the cycle of poverty.

Democrats have been using blacks as livestock, who in return for graze, unthinkingly go to pull the lever for everything with a (D) after its name in the voting booth.

D'Souza's argument is particularly dangerous because it presents as though blacks are hermetically concealed to understanding facts, when the truth of the matter is that there has been no Republican voice that has articulately presented any.

Overall, this is an excellent book from D'Souza.

Excellent Primer of Conservatism and Critique of Liberalism
The title is misleading on this book.

Letters to a Young Conservative is a book for all those who would like a primer on American conservatism, regardless of age or political party. In the milieu of political labels and name-calling, I wonder if the average American knows what it means to be a conservative. Dinesh D'Souza's book will help you understand what it means and what its implications are.

Since it is a collection of personal letters to a college student named Chris, the main focus is what it means to be a conservative in the university setting today. One can see the difficulties in how such students are harassed and belittled and silenced in the academic realm. D'Souza offers insight in why this occurs, along with reasons to fight against the liberal machine as "conservative radicals."

Letters to a Young Conservative is more than a book of advice; it is a treatise on how conservatism is a better answer to political issues and problems facing America, whether racism, immigration, or "family values." He offers two powerful chapters on polarizing issues of abortion and gay marriage that clearly define an alternative viewpoint than The New York Times offers.

Being a minority and immigrant himself, Dinesh D'Souza's discussions of race and affirmative action were especially interesting and helpful. Those chapters alone make this book a worthy read.

You may disagree with his conclusions, but at least this book explains American conservatism more accurately than Keith Olbermann does. Unfortunately, liberals allow Olbermann's and other clownish TV commentator's antics to define what the other side believes. This book clarifies conservatism beyond mere mockery.

This is an excellent resource for high school seniors to read as they prepare for not only college but also for their first voting opportunity. As a teacher, I envision using chapters to help define the political philosophy to foster healthy, productive discussions of American politics.

I hope that I did not make this sound like a stuff textbook. Dinesh D'Souza often has a humorous style of writing that will engage and equip the reader.

Dave Ochs
Mr. D'Souza writes in a clear, enjoyable style.I gave this book to each of my sons - one who has conservative values (as I do), and the other who is ambivalent about politics.If he does take the time to read this book, I'm hoping it will at least kindle an interest in politics, and possibly lean him towards conservative ideas.

Pablum
I found the arguments to be extremely simple talking points without any intellectual weight to them - the book makes assumptions and then works from them without doing anything to ballast them. For example, a cheap shot at left-wingers - conservatives tend to work in business or sciences which can be backed up with hard data, he says, like economists, while liberals tend to work in less verifiable fields such as sociology where they will have "power" as professors. Really? Economics may have certain common formulas and a common glossary, though approaches differ and economics (like D'Souza, incidentally, as a commentator) can spout off on ramifications without check or balance as much as they'd like.

Left-wingers, he says, think that a "fair" society is one where they would be rich and successful for their intelligence, while conservatives are rewarded for hard work and business sense. This goes completely against the progressive analysis of inequality in society - either he doesn't know it or prefers not to give this context. Either way the "letters" format gives D'Souza an excuse not to follow-up on his half-baked neocon ideas and the book serves only as drivel for the Hannitized.

Great book
Dinesh D'Souza is smart, and I would not want to engage him in a debate without considerable preparation, because he is an accomplished rhetorician, who solidly grasps historical facts and conservative tradition.

This book provides pithy descriptions of modern liberalism (not classical liberalism, which overlaps quite considerably with modern conservatism), conservatism and libertarianism.Within conservatism, distinctions are drawn between the European "throne and alter" strand, and the American strand that developed in the colonies, culminating in the Revolution.

As other reviewers have pointed out, the chapters in this book can be used to construct a series of cheat sheets of conservative talking points and their support.The construction and mechanics of D'Souza's arguments are solid; once one accepts their premises, it is very difficult to not accept their conclusions, even if one approaches the book from a quite different position than the author's.

D'Souza's premises, therefore, are where one can aim an initial response.One such premise is the addition of "virtue" to the classical liberal belief in religious, expressive, economic and political freedom.Other freedoms are not part of traditional liberalism, such as the New Deal's freedom from want, or the 1960's "liberation" philosophy (attributed by D'Souza to Rousseau) in which moral freedom challenged the previous moral order. Virtue in this context has a specific set of meanings including "merit, patriotism, prosperity, national unity, social order, morality, responsibility," and NOT "equality, compassion, pluralism, diversity, social justice, peace, autonomy, tolerance." (pp 7-8)

Second, there is a fundamental belief in "warped timber of humanity": "Conservatives recognized that there are two principles in human nature--good and evil--and they are in constant conflict." By contrast, liberals are seen as naïve because they claim "conflicts in the world are not the result of good versus evil; rather they arise out of terrible misunderstandings." (p9)

Third, when freedom and virtue themselves are in conflict, then "the best argument for freedom in is not that it is an end in itself but that it is the necessary prerequisite for choosing what is right." (p14) There we have it, virtue (in its specific meaning) is more important than freedom.And if there is prevailing liberal culture, then "one must seek to undermine it, to thwart it, to destroy it at the root level. This means that the conservative must stop being conservative." (p25)

Fourth, "religion is primary source of morality."(p111).

Fifth, actions taken out of self-interest, even when they impinge on the freedoms of other people are justified: "To ask a nation to ignore its own self-interest is tantamount to asking it to put aside the welfare of its people." (p207).This point may be used to justify the dictatorships of people such as Somoza, Pinochet and Marcos (p206).

Sixth, Violence in the course of legitimate aims is necessary and appropriate."The problem with liberals is that they never give bayonets a chance."(p209).I'll digress slightly and point out this often used technique in the book, which is oversimplifying or misstating liberal positions. Most modern liberals support the use of force in the appropriate circumstances.But this is a minor quibble, because every essayist does this to some extent.

Seventh, "Even hypocrisy--professing one thing but doing another--is in the conservative view preferable to a denial of standards." (p6).

Readers can form their opinions about D'Souza's premises, and then judge his arguments, which are forceful and support modern conservative positions on affirmative action, taxes, multiculturalism, use of military, gay marriage, left-wing judges, the 3/5 clause in the constitution, guns, postmodernists and many other topics.In pointing out these premises, some may accuse me of quoting out of context, but here D'Souza himself comes to my defense: "All quotations are out of context" (p139).

A final note about the background on how D'Souza became a conservative at Dartmouth:He was very impressed by Jeffrey Hart, a professor of English there and a senior editor at the National Review magazine. Dr. Hart, who wore buttons saying things like "soak the poor." Dr. Hart, who liked to interrupt colleagues in faculty meetings by churning a noisy wooden rotary device.To victim of aids, Dr. Hart suggested a tattoo on their buttocks stating "abandon all hope, ye who enter here."Nice mentor.

D'Souza also became involved with the Dartmouth review and liked its tactics and humor: "We were not above ad hominem attacks".Members of the review satirized the gay students society by finding the Dartmouth Bestiality Society" and appointed "a president, a vice president, a treasurer and a zookeeper".Such wit.One of the columnists of the review quipped "The question is not whether women should be educated at Dartmouth. The question is whether women should be educated at all."Compelling and funny stuff.
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Product Description
Earl Creps is known for his work in connecting the younger generation of postmoderns with their Boomer predecessors. The author of Off-Road Disciplines, Creps, in this new book, takes up the topic of how older church leaders can learn from younger leaders who are more conversant with culture, technology, and social context. In addition to making the benefits of what he calls "reverse mentoring" apparent, he also makes it accessible by offering practical steps to implement this discipline at both personal and organizational levels, particularly in communication, evangelism, and leadership.

Creps' new book is a topic of interest both inside and outside the church as older leaders realize that they're not "getting it" when it comes to technologies (iPod, IM, blogging) or cultural issues such as the fact that younger people see the world in an entirely different way. Creps has been personally involved in reverse mentoring for several years and has spoken and written on the subject extensively. He has pastored three churches (one Boomer, one Builder, on X'er) and is currently a church planter in Berkeley, California. He has also served as a consultant and and a seminary professor and administrator, holding a PhD in Communication Studies and a D.Min. from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Hard wired in a plug and play world
I have been thinking about mentoring for some time.I was excited to see this book, which really expanded upon a chapter of his very excellent book, Off-Road Disciplines.Reverse Mentoring by Earl Creps is a handbook that I will keep on my current reading bookshelf for reference.

When I was in business a few years ago and trying to understand the internet and how it would eventually impact our business model, I would often engage young men and women in conversation about various aspects of the net and quickly it was apparent that my thoughts were geared to the economic business model and their perspective was a community or social model.That is a big difference.Depending on where you start in the conversation you can find yourself in the center of the action or way out in left field.Earl provides "road signs" along the way of this whole R-Mentoring process.

In Reverse Mentoring, Earl points out that many, either do not want to push themselves out of their comfort zone or are fearful of looking like they are stupid about things that are intuitive to the rising generations.Any hope of maintaining relevance depends upon allowing ourselves to be mentored by young men who are wise about things that with every passing day we run the risk of becoming obsolescent.Earl has done a good job of putting in one volume principles and ideas that will serve those of us who have a desire to speak into the hearts of the next generation by allowing to them to speak into our hearts.This guide book is like a manual for someone who is about to engage in foreign missions.

Earl was gracious to use some quotes of mine from a blog entry I wrote on this topic.As I said in that entry, "Every day I get a little more disconnected unless I intentionally work at staying connected." (p21)Further as I said when we allow ourselves to be transparent to the next generation it is "easy to think that things change so rapidly just to keep me [us] off balance or on the edge of the conversation." (p78)This is rarely the case, though we must exercise some common sense, there probably some things that we should allow to be exclusively their domain - no need to look stupid trying to be something we are not.I really do believe that the story of Elisha and Joash in 2 Kings 13 provides a glimpse of inter-generational strength and wisdom working together.I summarized that interaction as follows, "Young and old, old and young working together taking advantage of the strengths that both have to offer...I am willing to submit to the next generation to learn from them the things I should and trust that I will be able to impart the few things I have gleaned in living life.Life on life investing in the lives of a few.What could one give himself to that would compare to this?" (p183)

Throughout the book, Earl provides real world illustrations of how R-mentoring might work itself out for those who have the desire to join in this exciting endeavor.For me the principles in this book are working themselves out in my life as I allow Carson Peterson, Jason Rodriguez, Lane Moon, Brad Wolfrom, Scott Hamilton, Martin Elvington and Eugen Cozonac to speak into my heart and have the permission to challenge me when necessary.In the short time that I have been with these men, they are shaping me and equipping me to maintain connectedness in this very dynamic world in which we live.When I press them, they return the favor and they are fast becoming my friends.

One of my big takeaways from this very important book, is that we must take this challenge, and if we are to be successful we must allow humility to temper our interactions with the next generation.Earl has done us a great service.I trust this book will find its way into the hands of men and women who will rise to the call issued by Earl to engage in the conversation, to run with the herd and experience the excitement of embracing those things that excite the next generation.When we find ourselves at that point we may then have the privilege of speaking into their hearts when their souls are in the grip of fear.Life on life, there is no bigger nor better call. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A road map for educational survival
Mentoring Students at Risk is certainly the most researched volume on Mentoring and focused specifically on alternative education. The main thrust of alternative education is individualized instruction in smallschools, located in non-traditional settings emphasizing improvement ofbasic skills and other experiential types of learning.This volume isrichly documented with over fifty research projects and includes a usefulbibliography for administrators and teachers alike.An excellent volumefor teachers of students labeled in the "at risk category" andespecially parents who are considering alternative education. ... Read more

Product Description
"My teens are questioning the truth they have been told about Christ their entire lives!" "How do I deal with the peer pressure that's influencing them?" Many parents ask these and many other tough questions when their children reach the teen years, and the Parent's Guide to the Spiritual Mentoring of Teens is a book that answers them by sharing information, advice, and techniques to help guide teens into a growing, grace-filled love relationship with Jesus Christ. A new addition to Focus on the Family's best-selling series of guides. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Thorough, Practical Book About Raising Christian Teens
Though the book is titled, "Spiritual Mentoring of Teens," that specific subject is only a small portion of this volume's material.It is really a thorough, positive book about rearing teens, including matters like communication, choosing what to fight over and what to let slide, practical do's and don'ts, tons of relational stuff--a wealth of good, realistic advice for parents who want to encourage their children toward godliness without creating a backlash through over-control.

The front cover of the book identifies it with James Dobson's, "Focus on the Family," and it is in line with Focus on the Family's general philosophy.This would make a great textbook for a class and wonderful reading for serious parents.

As with any book of this nature, there is bound to be a point or two readers will disagree with.For me, it was the author's advice to assure that teens are in a church with "lively worship."Sounds like a theological bias toward charismatic/seeker sensitive approach to me.There is a lot to be said (but is usually unsaid) about the importance of building stability and convictions beyond the superficial and entertaining.Teaching children that church is about things like relationships, growth in grace and knowledge, and faithfulness (rather than being entertained) has gone the way of the record player.

Despite my personal soapbox, I highly recommend this volume as one of the better ones available. ... Read more