Suchergebnisse

"Actors Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close, Rose McGowan and Leah Remini. Humorist Garrison Keillor. Musician Lisa Marie Presley. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Each of these well-know people has more than fame in common; each was born or raised in a cult. We think of cults as bizarre, inexplicable, or otherworldly places that only strange people inhabit, but cults and other abusive and high-demand groups (and relationships) are actually quite commonplace. In fact, the behaviors, social pressures, and authoritarian structures that create cults exist to a greater or lesser extent in every human relationship and every human group. Cult behavior is human behavior - and by studying cults, we can learn remarkably useful things about the social world and our place in itIn the first in-depth research of its kind, sociologist and cult expert Janja Lalich interviewed sixty-five people who were born in or grew up in thirty-nine different cultic groups spanning more than a dozen countries. What's especially interesting about these individuals is that they each left the cult on their own, without outside help or internal support. In Escaping Utopia: Growing Up in a Cult, Getting Out, and Starting Over, Lalich and award-winning author (and fellow cult survivor) Karla McLaren craft Lalich's original and groundbreaking research into an accessible and engaging book, the first of its kind focusing on this particular population. Lalich and McLaren explore fundamental questions about human nature, human development, group dynamics, abuse and control, and triumphs of the human spirit in the face of intense and extended suffering."--Provided by publisher.

American children are becoming increasingly overweight and inactive; consequently, the school lunch room is fast becoming an ideological battle ground. Legislators, medical professionals, school districts, parents, and the media are focusing intense scrutiny on school nutrition programs, and sweeping changes to these programs are federally mandated to occur before July, 2006. However, equal scrutiny has not been focused on the actual operations, logistics, or requirements of these programs. Through interviews, on-site visits, and participant observations, this eight week study focuses on current (April through June 2005) conditions in three economically disparate public school nutrition programs in one California county. This study asks if school nutrition programs can implement the numerous changes required under new cultural (informal) and upcoming federal (formal) mandates. The conclusion in this instance is that no, public schools are under too much existent financial, physical plant-related, and personnel-related strain to be able to easily or effectively retool their nutrition programs to match the burgeoning ideology. This study provides recommendations and considerations for schools, parents, and legislators – not from an ideological elevation, but from the actual locations within which our children are being fed.