A BOOK REVIEW: CARING FOR PEOPLE FROM BIRTH TO DEATH

Compact, easy to read and easy to digest are just a few words that describe this work by Dr. Hightower. The author takes a very complex subject and breaks it down into digestible pieces. I have found educators to be among the worst at telling someone else how to do something. Hightower takes this subject of caring for people and puts into a readable format. Theories are eluded to but not dwelled upon. He divides his book into sections that can be read as needed for a particular group i.e., Preschool years early school years etc. He takes the ideas and writings of professional care-givers and psychologists and offers them in an almost buffet style. This allows the reader to pick what he needs. I found the annotated bibliography at the end of each chapter to be helpful in identifying other sources of more information. The first six chapters dealt with the various stages of human psychological development. While this was extremely interesting and helpful, I found that section of the chapter that dealt with spiritual growth in each developmental stage to be the most helpful. The holistic approach to caring

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Again, prior to reading Hightower, I considered this group to be the most spiritually strong. While it is true for all people regardless of age, it is this group that seem to be bombarded from all sides. Adolescence is a complex period and it was especially helpful for me to get an understanding of the definitions that have been assigned to adolescence. When members of this group see themselves as failures it can send the wrong message to the younger Christians. As pastors and ministers we are to help them see God through this struggle. This is a time of accepting some realities.

Many ministers and pastors fall into this age group and can bring their own wounds to the table. It is during this time that all the “stuff” that they have learned is pulled together and some sense of it is extracted. Goals that were set are now out reach and unattainable.

At this age, persons are beginning to come to grip with the fact that they are just about as successful as they are going to be. During this time, younger members of society seek to take responsibility or challenge them for responsibility. From this I learned that there is really no compelling need to revamp how and what I teach but that I understand I must be able to apply the teaching in terms of what is happening now (fashion, music etc)

Chapter four was the most wordy of the chapters. After defining and exploring these terms he looked at who is called to care and concluded that pastoral care is a task for all Christians. I learned from this discussion that we cannot discuss adolescence or at least deal with some of the issues of adolescence without looking at adolescence from a biological, psychological, and sociological perspective.

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Approximate Word count = 2288
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

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