Читать книгу Their Name Is Today - Johann Arnold Christoph - Страница 5

Foreword

I bet this is the shortest foreword you will ever read!

Why?

Because I do not want to delay you more than a minute or two from reading my good friend Johann Christoph Arnold’s book.

It really is that good.

Like Christoph, I have had the honor of working with children of all ages throughout my career. During college summer breaks I tutored troubled inner-city high school students. After college, I created a program that works with juvenile delinquents in Baltimore. In the Maryland Legislature, as the first chair of the Joint Committee on Children, Youth and Families, I collaborated with national and international experts on child development and passed legislation designed to help young children enter kindergarten ready to learn. For the last twelve years, I have had the privilege of working at Save the Children, giving kids in the United States and around the world a healthy start, opportunities to learn, and protection from harm, because children deserve a childhood.

On the home front, my wife, Jeanne, and I have been married for twenty-two years and have been blessed with three children: Molly, 16, Tommy, 14, and Emma, 9.

Like you, we have struggled with many of the issues that Christoph addresses in this marvelous book, from the impact of electronics, to academic pressures, to the lack of unstructured play time, to the violence and poverty that children face daily.

Jeanne and I often find ourselves discussing how to deal with these very issues as we raise our own children. Things are coming at us so fast and furiously, it’s overwhelming. We have tried to do the right thing, making numerous changes as our kids grow.

I only wish that Christoph had written this book seventeen years ago, before Jeanne and I became parents! He could have helped us on the child-rearing front, in the political arena, and on the job.

The stories Christoph shares have helped Jeanne and me as we interact with our children and their friends, and I am confident that they will help you in your home, in your classroom, and in your neighborhood.

If you want to glean insights into how to raise and influence children to be more compassionate and considerate, more courageous and confident, more independent, secure, and unselfish; if you want your children to be more loving and joy-filled, then get reading!

And share this book. I’ve already shared my dog-eared manuscript with several friends. They responded as I did. One replied: “It makes me want to go back and do a few things differently for my own children. . . .”

I have written too much. Read on and learn from a wise friend who loves and reveres children, whose words can help us all, whatever our age, to give and receive joy.

Mark K. Shriver

President, Save the Children Action Network

Author, A Good Man: Rediscovering My Father, Sargent Shriver