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29th out of 129 books
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142 voters
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Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief
by
Dale McGowan
Praised by Newsweek as "a compelling read" and Library Journal as "accessible and down-to-earth," Dale McGowan's Parenting Beyond Belief offered freethinking parents everywhere a compassionate introduction to raising caring, ethical children without religious guidance. Now, Raising Freethinkers offers solutions to the unique challenges secular parents f...more
Paperback, 269 pages
Published
February 1st 2009
by AMACOM/American Management Association
(first published 2009)
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What a wonderful work to help parents raise thinkers.
Most helpful to me are the Activities at the end of each chapter to reinforce the ideas taught and to encourage thinking and learning in your childrens' minds.
Favorite chapter? "Celebrating Life" - which I think is especially helpful for us non-believers. Clear-ups on traditional/holidays and how to celebrate them without indoctrination is why I think MacGowan received the Humanist Award from Harvard U. :) (Others...more
Most helpful to me are the Activities at the end of each chapter to reinforce the ideas taught and to encourage thinking and learning in your childrens' minds.
Favorite chapter? "Celebrating Life" - which I think is especially helpful for us non-believers. Clear-ups on traditional/holidays and how to celebrate them without indoctrination is why I think MacGowan received the Humanist Award from Harvard U. :) (Others...more
I never really thought about myself as a "freethinker" or a "secular humanist" until I read this book. The author's work was referred to me by my aunt who works for the Institute for Science and Human Values (a secular neo-humanist organization). We can all categorize ourselves under different labels, but the label "non-religious" just sounds awkward. I am glad I can now think of myself in new terms, and "freethinker" certainly sounds more positive than ...more
Долго думала, какую оценку поставить - 3 звезды или 4. Решила все-таки 3, потому что не на все свои вопросы нашла ответы, а также порой казалось, что книга написана все-таки человеком, принадлежащим какой-то религии. Но нельзя не отметить великолепный материал про то, как объяснять "смерть" без понятий рай-ад, а также, что говорить, когда задан вопрос о сексе. А также спасибо большое авторам за колоссальную работу по нахождению всевозможных источников по теме - сайты, книги, фильмы и т...more
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When I checked out this book, I did not know that their was a first book also by Dale MacGowan. But I happy I started with this one. Every time I pick it up I get such a wonderful feeling. I just want to cherish it all. While I'm not humanist and I do consider myself a theist I still took A LOT from this book. The only downside was quickly resolved by a friend (who also lend me the first in the series) was that I wanted to go and run and look at every link and book mentioned. Fortunately someone...more
I found this book a while back after I read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Yes, it's by atheist/secular humanist authors and so you know that's what these people think and that those are their core beliefs. Yes, they're beliefs. So, overall, they are very hard on the fundamentalist religions, they do show how the more progressive religions mostly parent in the same way as the secular humanists. This book is CHOCK FULL of resources on lots of different topics. This book has been a grea...more
This book is a wonderful resource for (secular) parents that want to raise their children to be questioning adults and to embrace humanistic values.
It's a guide that, in a religious world, will help you raise your kids to be aware and respectful of other beliefs while being secure in their own world view.
It covers the different stages of moral development as well as dealing with issues like loss and death and is full of activities and other resources - including a wonderf...more
It's a guide that, in a religious world, will help you raise your kids to be aware and respectful of other beliefs while being secure in their own world view.
It covers the different stages of moral development as well as dealing with issues like loss and death and is full of activities and other resources - including a wonderf...more
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This was an educational book on learning the point of view of atheists and how they'd prefer raising children without God or any form of belief system. The argument is that logic and reason is all you should need to raise a respectable moral child in today's society. They believe religion is brain washing and doesn't allow doubt or questioning. They list resources and excises after each chapter. Although they profess to believe in "freethinking", it sounded pretty much them teaching th...more
This.Book.Is.Amazing! Having read Parenting Beyond Belief, I was very excited to get Dale McGowan's next book. This has lived up to PBB and more! Since Samantha is not very old yet, much of this book doesn't apply to us yet, but we know it will. I have about 20 sticky notes marking activities, tips and websites for our next few years of parenting. This book not only increases my anticipation for Sammie's youth, it makes me feel more prepared for raising her with our pro-science, pro-reality, pro...more
Lauren
rated it
Not very useful for me specifically, of course, but an incredible resource with specific questions and answers, suggestions, book and video recommendations, etc., especially about Santa, death, morality, ethics, comparative religion, even about secular homeschooling and the pledge...
Do you have or plan to have kids that you want to raise in a freethinking manner? This book and its predecessor, "Parenting Beyond Belief," are -as far as I can tell- ideal.
Do you have or plan to have kids that you want to raise in a freethinking manner? This book and its predecessor, "Parenting Beyond Belief," are -as far as I can tell- ideal.
Indeed, this book had lots of practical ideas for fun things to do with your kids to encourage critical thinking, respect for science and the natural world, and so on. It's written from an American perspective, so there's substantial discussion about how to deal with being non-religious in an intensely religious milieu; those bits were of less practical interest to me but certainly eye-opening with respect to the situation in that country.
What a fabulous, fabulous book. Haven't read it cover to cover, yet, but the part about death and how to help them understand it was great. It's something I wonder how to explain to my toddler as he grows older and they had great suggestions--none of this "grandma is now in heaven" garbage. Great book for nonreligious parenting.
I'm about three-quarters of the way through this book and it has been so eye-opening and reaffirming. Having been raised in a very religious home and now raising children with a religious spouse, I felt lost as to how I could help my kids grow up to be critical thinkers. I want skeptics but not cynics! The book is so full of activities and resourses that I doubt I could ever get to them all. Excellent book, highly recommended.
I heard an interview with this author and how he took his kids to different churches to expose them to different religions so they could make up their own mind regarding the choice of religion. This book isn't what I expected at all. It pretty much tells you to be an atheist.
Shannon
marked it as to-read
Why: I've enjoyed his blog The Meming of Life and would like to see if he has anything further to say in his book. Having been raised in a non-religious household, I don't have much difficulty in parenting without religion, but maybe there;s more to it than I think.
Stephanie
added it
I found the parenting advice to be OUTSTANDING, but the irony of the fact that the author is SO prejudiced and encouraging prejudice against 85% of the worlds population (while calling it "freethinking") turned me off. Too bad, it had good bones.
This is a great, straightforward guide to some of the FAQs/instant questions people will ask you, or you may ask yourself, about raising children w/o religion. With the exception of a few activities that had me going "srsly??" this was great. I'm sure I'll refer back to it a lot.
I found a lot of the information useful. I think there was a lof of good information for anyone who has or works with children regardless of their religious beliefs.
I especially found the chapter on dealing with death helpful. I so rarely see useful information for helping kids deal with the concept of death.
I especially found the chapter on dealing with death helpful. I so rarely see useful information for helping kids deal with the concept of death.
Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!
Although specifically written for the atheist crowd, this book is chock full of great ideas, resources and activities for any parent who wants to raise kids who will insist on a better answer than "Because (God/I/the fuhrer) says so."
Although specifically written for the atheist crowd, this book is chock full of great ideas, resources and activities for any parent who wants to raise kids who will insist on a better answer than "Because (God/I/the fuhrer) says so."
A broad overview filled with ideas to help kids grow without the taint of religious doctrine. Helpfully put forward a few new (to me) ideas, but nothing earth-shattering, just basic common sense.
The companion to "Parenting Beyond belief" does a good job answering individal questions perhaps left unanswered in the fore mentioned book. It does a good job.
Pretty basic - but some solid practical ideas. Has some great recommendations for further reading, children's books and online resources.
Advance copy from the publisher... it's really good. I found the chapter on "The Physical Self" especially helpful. Highly recommended.
A useful starting place for thinking about holidays when the religious ones aren't meaningful.
Highly recommended by my husband (yes, he's reading parenting books!).
I wish every person who interacts with children would read this book. It suggests activities and demonstrates attitudes that promote curiosity and critical thinking. It even offers ways of describing astronomical phenomena in ways easily understood by children, which I think is so cool because I get a lot of blank stares when I make such attempts. Although geared towards atheists, the authors acknowledge that there are good religious parents in the world. I implore you, don’t be put off by the t...more
I've been reading Dale McGowan's blog for a while, but I just now got around to reading Raising Freethinkers. This is an amazing resource for freethinking parents, as well as for any parent who simply wants to raise their child to be his or her own person and to not be afraid to do what's right, even if he's not in the majority.
Excellent advice for raising children.
I really wanted to like this book...I read Dale M's blog on occasion and really hoped there'd be more depth to this book...but I couldn't get through the book and gave up on the blog. It's dry, has very little practical day-to-day information and every time I read it, I was left worrying that I was still missing something.
Great book! A must read for every parent. I will be using this book constantly with my growing children, very glad I found it!
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