The Bookshelf: Feb. 19, 2015

Trib+Edu is joining with respected books authority Kirkus Reviews to bring you select reviews of books of note in the field of public education. For more book reviews and recommendations, visit Kirkus.com.

RAISING GENERATION RX:Mothering Kids with Invisible Disabilities in an Age of Inequality

by Linda M. Blum

Blum addresses how demands on women have escalated and increasing numbers of maladjusted children are diagnosed with mental disabilities.

Though gender roles are changing, mothers, writes the author, are still assigned “primary responsibility for child-care and the major share of blame when things go wrong.” This often places mothers in the position of navigating between educational and medical authorities as they seek help for their children. Overcrowded, underfunded schools have little tolerance for disruptive behavior … Their worries about over medicating their children or seeing them fail in school are similar ...  The growing number of children who are “medicalized” is a reflection “of anxieties about an uncertain world in which boundaries of privilege within and outside the United States are being redrawn," raising the bar for success to include only the children with the highest levels of emotional and intellectual functioning.

A valuable contribution to the national dialogue on health care and education.

For full review, visit kirkus.com.