The best teachers in life are those who have not only studied, but truly experienced the message that they are trying to relay. Whether it is religion, sports, or simple life lessons, your words and actions must be genuine. A wise man once said, "You can't teach what you don't know, but if you do know, why not spread the knowledge." The words on these pages were written to inspire hope. They are not only meant for the multitude of people that don't believe a woman can raise a son into a successful man without the immediate help of a father, but as well as for the individuals who are proving that theory wrong every day. There is hope. Through faith, strength, dedication, and prayer a former school teacher turned pastor was able to successfully raise her son into a respectable, focused, and driven man. This story and its lessons highlight the ups and downs, the smiles and frowns, and the tears of joy and sorrow that are all a part of the tremendous journey that a mother and son embark on together through life's everlasting trials and tribulations.

This book critically examines multiple discourses of wellbeing in relation to the composite aims of schooling. Drawing from a Scottish study, the book disentangles the discursive complexity, to better understand what can happen in the name of wellbeing, and in particular, how wellbeing is linked to learning in schools. Arguing that educational discourses have been overshadowed by discourses of other groups, the book examines the political and ideological policy aims that can be supported by different discourses of wellbeing. It also uses interview data to show how teachers and policy actors accepted, or re-shaped and remodelled the policy discourses as they made sense of them in their own work. When addressing schools' responses to inequalities, discussions are often framed in terms of wellbeing. Yet wellbeing as a concept is poorly defined and differently understood across academic and professional disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, health promotion, and social care. Nonetheless, its universally positive connotations allow policy changes to be ushered in, unchallenged. Powerful actions can be exerted through the use of soft vocabulary as the discourse of wellbeing legitimates schools' intervention into personal aspects of children's lives. As educators worldwide struggle over the meaning and purpose of schooling, discourses of wellbeing can be mobilised in support of different agendas. This book demonstrates how this holds both dangers and opportunities for equality in education. Amartya Sen's Capability Approach is used to offer a way forward in which different understandings of wellbeing can be drawn together to offer a perspective that enhances young people's freedoms in education and their freedoms gained through education.

Tony is facing eviction instead of enjoying retirement; Limarra isn't 'homeless enough' to get help from the council; and for Kelly and her asthmatic son Morgan, another new rented house is a matter of life and death. This is twenty-first century Britain, where millions are trying to build lives in privately rented accommodation, which creates profit for landlords but not safe and stable homes for tenants. This fierce and moving account tells their stories, and the story of how we built a housing system where homelessness is a constant threat. Award-winning housing journalist Vicky Spratt traces decades of bad decisions to show how and why the British dream of homeownership has withered and the safety net of social housing has unravelled. She has spent years talking with those on the frontline all around the country. Here, she illuminates the ways this national emergency cuts across generations, class and education and is devastating our health, destroying communities and transforming the social, economic and political landscape beyond recognition. But it is not irreversible. The Covid-19 pandemic showed that radical action is possible, and there are real steps we can take to give everyone the chance of a good home. This urgent, ground breaking book leads the way.

The YMCA and the YWCA have been an integral part of America's urban landscape since their emergence almost 150 years ago. Yet the significant influence these organizations had on American society has been largely overlooked. Men and Women Adrift explores the role of the YMCA and YWCA in shaping the identities of America's urban population.

Examining the urban experiences of the single young men and women who came to the cities in search of employment and personal freedom, these essays trace the role of the YMCA and the YWCA in urban America from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. The contributors detail the YMCA's early competition with churches and other urban institutions, the associations' unique architectural style, their services for members of the working class, African Americans, and immigrants, and their role in defining gender and sexual identities.

The volume includes contributions by Michelle Busby, Jessica Elfenbein, Sarah Heath, Adrienne Lash Jones, Paula Lupkin, Raymond A. Mohl, Elizabeth Norris, Cliff Putney, Nancy Robertson, Thomas Winter, and John D. Wrathall.

This book examines the subject of Development Finance, or more specifically how financial systems can help or hinder the process of human development. As an expert in this field, Stephen Spratt reviews the components of the domestic and international financial systems, and considers reform options objectively against the central goal of human development. The result is a combination of orthodox and more innovative approaches, which provides a thorough grounding in development finance theory and practice in the 21st century. Topics covered in the book include: The Millennium Development Goals Financial crises and international capital flows The role of the private sector Microfinance. Focusing on the roles of the World Bank and the IMF and with a host of case studies and real world examples from Asia, Africa and Latin America as well as the "transition" economies of Eastern Europe, the author examines developing countries' engagement with the international financial system and its influence on the process of human development, both positive and negative.

Educational researchers and academicians need the latest advances in educational technologies in order to enhance instruction and aid student assessment and learning. E-Learning Technologies and Evidence-Based Assessment Approaches provides a variety of contemporary solutions to identified educational problems related to the assessment of student learning in e-learning environments. This book draws on research and evaluation expertise of academicians engaged in the day-to-day challenges of using e-learning technologies and presents key issues in peer assessment using advanced technologies.

Radically rethinks the theoretical parameters through which we interpret both current and past ideas of captivity, adoption, and slavery among Native American societies in an interdisciplinary perspective. Highlights the importance of the interaction between perceptions, representations and lived experience associated with the facts of slavery.

This book combines assemblage theory and policy mobilities to inform the study of comparative and international education (CIE), focusing on education policy and how such policy moves are enacted. These approaches challenge taken-for-granted and universalising concepts in policy research and policy work in CIE such as the nation-state, policymaking/policy enactment, global/local, Global North/Global South and highlight how policy is contingent on emerging through complex relations between people and places. Using illustrative cases and vignettes drawn from research and practice in CIE and education development, the book demonstrates how these ideas can be used in the analysis of policy and the application of this approach in real life.

For the best children's books, reach for the stars!. In July 2001, large parts of Southern Africa became dark during the day. Many people witnessed a total eclipse of the Sun. What did they see? And why did it go dark in the day?. Read a story about the experiences of a young girl and boy who watched the eclipse. You will also find lots of information, with diagrams and photographs that explain what a solar eclipse is all about.

This book critically examines multiple discourses of wellbeing in relation to the composite aims of schooling. Drawing from a Scottish study, the book disentangles the discursive complexity, to better understand what can happen in the name of wellbeing, and in particular, how wellbeing is linked to learning in schools. Arguing that educational discourses have been overshadowed by discourses of other groups, the book examines the political and ideological policy aims that can be supported by different discourses of wellbeing. It also uses interview data to show how teachers and policy actors accepted, or re-shaped and remodelled the policy discourses as they made sense of them in their own work. When addressing schools' responses to inequalities, discussions are often framed in terms of wellbeing. Yet wellbeing as a concept is poorly defined and differently understood across academic and professional disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, health promotion, and social care. Nonetheless, its universally positive connotations allow policy changes to be ushered in, unchallenged. Powerful actions can be exerted through the use of soft vocabulary as the discourse of wellbeing legitimates schools' intervention into personal aspects of children's lives. As educators worldwide struggle over the meaning and purpose of schooling, discourses of wellbeing can be mobilised in support of different agendas. This book demonstrates how this holds both dangers and opportunities for equality in education. Amartya Sen's Capability Approach is used to offer a way forward in which different understandings of wellbeing can be drawn together to offer a perspective that enhances young people's freedoms in education and their freedoms gained through education.

Radically rethinks the theoretical parameters through which we interpret both current and past ideas of captivity, adoption, and slavery among Native American societies in an interdisciplinary perspective. Highlights the importance of the interaction between perceptions, representations and lived experience associated with the facts of slavery.

"Strong debut . . . this nuanced portrait of the state of American Judaism proffers a cogent vision of how to revitalize the faith." --Publisher's Weekly Why are religious organizations on the decline? What changes have caused many of them to lose touch with modern spiritual needs? What does it take to remain relevant in today's world? Rabbis Joshua Stanton and Benjamin Spratt take on these and other critical questions facing religion today. And they have answers that are frank and yet surprisingly upbeat. Nearly every facet of American Jewish life--and of American religious life in general--faces both disruption and great prospects for renewal. In every corner of our community, Jewish identity, wisdom, ritual, and power are being remixed and reimagined. As centralized authority declines, American Judaism moves and grows in a multitude of directions. As technology reduces the importance of geographic boundaries, new opportunities for connection and new modes of exercising power emerge. New mixtures of ancient Jewish practice and modern needs are beginning to shape the renewal of American Judaism, widening access to Jewish wisdom and ritual, transforming Jewish consumers into Jewish co-creators, and building new networks of Jewish belonging. The initial purposes that inspired much of the American Jewish infrastructure are now falling victim to their own success. An emphasis on nostalgia and authenticity encourages us to mythologize the past and narrow our awareness of the present. A focus on buildings and centralized power by much of American Judaism reflects the realities of a century ago. In understanding what keeps these organizations mired in the past, we can unearth a new purpose to unify the American Diaspora and guide it toward a new golden age. The Foreword by Rev. Kaji Dousa, Senior Pastor of Park Avenue Christian Church, asks what a Black pastor can add to the work of two white rabbis, and the answer is that "cherished thinking needs a hard look everywhere. Particularly as we rightly orient our resources to protecting the good, to eliminating poverty that need not exist, to eradicating the hatred that threatens the very existence of our people--we need to look, together. Blacks and Jews and those living in the intersections therein will only survive and thrive with the survival and thriving of each other. So, of course, it makes sense that we will awaken, together." The Afterword by Dr. Eboo Patel, Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core cites the story of Rabbi Akiva, who "did not mourn when he saw the ruins of the Temple but rather was delighted. 'We always knew these stones must come down. In order to move forward, this had to fall apart first. Now we can begin.' All of our religions have history and theology like this. I think about the emergence of everything from Catholic orders to Sufi tariqas--renewal movements that changed the map of entire religions. We are at that same point again. Rabbis Stanton and Spratt propose we meet the moment with the generosity and power that are at the heart of all our religions. Their work gives me confidence that we can."