In a world where children are beset by violence and stress, Lesley Koplow provides educators with clear, level-headed advice on how to integrate preventive mental health practice into public schools (preschool through grade 5). Koplow, a psychotherapist, discusses the mandate for violence prevention and offers an intervention framework for teachers, administrators, and school-based clinicians who want to improve the emotional climate in their school. The book includes a chapter addressing what we've learned from the recent tragic events of September 11th in New York City. Suggested Interview Questions: 1. What can we use in the classroom to help students who are still concerned about the events of September 11? 2. Are there practices that are used in schools that can be integrated into the student's home life as well? 3. What are the major emotional problems that children in our schools have today and how can teachers help?

This book is a "must read" for parents and teachers who are concerned about our current education policies and how they affect our youngest students. Lesley Koplow brings the experience of being a young child, a young child's parent, or a teacher of young children to life in an era when public elementary schools are besieged by pressure to "win the race." Anyone who wonders what happened to nurturing early childhood and early grade classrooms that stimulate the young child's curiosity, creativity and quest to discover meaning will find the answer here. Advocates for the young child's right to a supportive, meaningful, relationship- based learning environment will find a powerful ally, and access to research revealing the score-driven approach to education as antithetical to a healthy learning process. Politics Aside supports the fight for dynamic education and authentic assessment in the early grades, and may help us garner the strength to "push politics aside" and make room for classrooms that feed our children's minds and hearts.