...According to Dave Pelzer, author of A Child Called “it,” “Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul” (Pelzer, 1995, pg.98). Meaning, children should be able to enjoy their carefree lives and not worry about pain. Child Sexual Abuse is a very harrowing experience for many victims. As the child continues to develop though, the sexual abuse can have an enormous impact on their lives, to the extent sometimes that the child no longer realizes it. This is called normalization, according to the Southeast Center Against Sexual Assault and Violence, Normalization of the survivors’ reactions to the abuse experience and the effects this has had on their psychological functioning, both historically...
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...I am reading A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer , and I have finished the book. The book is about a kid who used to have the perfect family, but things took a turn for the worse. His mom grew cold and she turned her son into the family slave. She had beaten him, starved him, forced him to wear the same clothes every day, and that’s just the tip of the ice berg. In this journal I will be evaluating. I evaluate that Dave’s mother has changed throughout the book. In the beginning of the book Dave describes his mom as a caring mother and wife. In the beginning Dave said she was known for being a happy nurturing mother. In the book she would always try to make her family happy. She would plan picnics and spend all day making supper. During the holidays she would decorate the...
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...A Child Called “It” Dave Pelzer Health Communications September 1st, 1995 184 pages The subject of this book was Dave Pelzer and I chose him because his life story interested me. What interested me about Pelzer was that he was strong, courageous, and smart enough to play his mother’s own games. Significant Events: 1) At age 12 Dave was finally rescued from the horror his mom would cause and placed in a series of foster homes until he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at age 18. Even with all that was against him, Dave was determined to better himself - no matter what the odds. 2) As a member of the Armed Forces, Dave was hand-picked to midair refuel the highly secretive SR-71 Blackbird and the F-117 Stealth Fighter, which played a major role in Operations Just Cause, Desert Shield and Desert Storm. While serving on active duty and maintaining a rigorous flight schedule, Dave made time to give of himself. 3) His first book was a major success and was about his alcoholic mother who was very abusive to him. Pelzer is the survivor of the third worst case of child-abuse in California’s history, a case he vividly recalls in A Child Called “It”. 4) Dave is the first to have four # 1 International Best Sellers and to have four books simultaneously on the New York Times Best Sellers List. Minor Events: 1) Dave was honored as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans. He joins a distinguished group including: John F. Kennedy, Anne Bancroft and Christopher Reeves...
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...for my brother to be healed for the drugs she had taken while pregnant had affected his brain. The wish of course never came true and I had to put my hope in something new. I found Jesus to put my trust in and he helped me to be forgiving and loving to others even when they did not deserve it. I know that not everyone is religious, but I do understand the importance of hope. This is why I want to give hope to others and I believe being a social worker can accomplish just that. Dave Pelzer was the boy from A Child Called IT. Dave is an example of why it is important to help others and to look out for those in need. Dave is a boy who was abused by his mom and did not get help for years to come, but through this whole time he had hope. He still is hopeful to this day and with the teachers and social workers help he was able to live to share his story. His story is very said and a great way to explain why being a social worker is one of the best ways to give hope to people. It talks about how Dave would be starved and abused by his mom growing up. In the book says, “She brain washes him, telling him he is a "bad boy" and does not deserve to have things his brother have. Her abuse keeps...
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...Introduction…………………………………………..3 Abstract……………………………………………….4 Background on Child Abuse…………………………5 Author………………………………………………..6 The Book……………………………………………..7 The Book’s Philosophy……………………………….9 How it influenced my life…………………………10 References……………………………………….13 Introduction Every one of us was given a parent to love us and take good care of us. Every child longs for their parents love and concern. Every child loves the feeling of an embrace and a kiss from their parents. The feeling of having your parents beside you no matter what is one of the best feelings a child could have. But, not all of us are given these kinds of parents. There are children who do not have parents but the worst is there are children who are being abused by their own parents. The person that should make them feel their importance in this world are the ones who make them feel unworthy, make them feel unloved. Abstract Philosophy literally means love of wisdom. During our Philosophy class, we studied different philosophies from different philosophers. Philosophy is everywhere. Our Philosophy in life could be affected by books, persons, movies and events in our life which proves that everything is part of philosophy. A Child Called ‘IT’ is a story of Dave Pelzer’s abused childhood life. His mother suddenly changed and began to hurt him. There are a lot of issues regarding child abuse in our society today which shows different kinds of philosophy. Dave and the other people involve in this books shows their own...
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...A Great Story I read the books A Child Called It, The Lost Boy, and A Man Named Dave. The reason I choose these books is because they are true stories which keeps me interested. From the beginning it had me hooked. I had to keep reading because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I learned some things about these books but one thing stood out to me the most and that is how the legal system was very different back then than it is now. I believe Dave Pelzer is a very strong individual to be able to survive what he went through and I think it is great that he has become the person he is today. David James (Dave) Pelzer was born December 29th 1960 in San Francisco California. He is an American Author, best known for his 1995 memoir of childhood abuse, “A Child Called It”. Dave is born 3rd out of 5 boys. Dave wrote in his book that as a child, he was continually abused, mistreated, and beaten by his mother, who thought of it as a game. His teachers stepped in and on March 1973 Dave Pelzer was placed in foster care. He joined the Air Force in 1979 and later became an author. The book “A child called it” caused a dispute in his family, one of his brothers said it was not true, however his other brother who is an author wrote a book “A Brother’s Journey” which confirms Dave’s story. Dave has written two books, “A Child called it” and “The Lost Boy”, which is about his life after he was placed in foster care. Dave currently lives in a different state with...
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...skills help all the parts that interact with each other to fully understand the person. Books that also help understand to see each complexly are A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and, Holes by Louis Sachar. Seeing each other complexly seems impenetrable because it is hard to see behind the story of the people that are confused by emotions or reactions they cannot explain. More of the complexly...
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...Michael Padilla April 11,2012 George Boyd A Child Called "It" Paper In the first chapter of "A Child Called 'It'" the author Dave Pelzer illustrates a typical morning routine for himself. He wakes up, does his chores, gets beaten by his mother, Catherine Roerva, and tries to make it to school on time. He describes how his she is running around yelling at his brothers, stomping down the hallway towards the kitchen. As he is doing the dishes she catches him with his hand out of the scalding hot water for just a moment and she smacks him in the face, knocking him to the floor. She follows this up with more blows to the head and leaves seemingly satisfied with herself. What's surprising is that Pelzer says that he lets her feel like she won by having streams of tears and mock defeat on his face. Once he is done with his chores he eats his breakfast, leftovers from his brother's cereal. A few bites and a half of a bowl of milk. As his mother drives him to school in their old station wagon he arrives to school late. Just as he is leaving she gives him his lunch bag, two peanut butter sandwiches and a few carrot sticks, the same thing he has been getting for the past three years. As he walks away she reminds him to say that the marks on his face came from running into the door. Once he arrives inside the school he must report to the administration's office. The nurse takes him off to her office and goes through a regular routine. She checks his arms, face and body for bruises...
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...* Part 1 In the novel I have read the author, Dave Pelzer, is not only the author but also the protagonist. In my opinion, Dave is described as a brave, courage, compassionate, and an inspirational young man. Dave tells his story when he was at the age of eighteen in this series. Dave not only wrote this novel but many more. I believe Dave and I share some of the same characteristics according to his book. Dave and I are both people who have a lot of compassion and have reasons to inspire people to go on with their lives. Dave has compassion towards his writings, not only does he has compassion but you can also read his writings and tell he loves what he does. In my opinion Dave has the power to inspire many teenagers or even adults to keep moving forward and not give up. As for myself, I find myself somewhat similar to Dave, although I didn’t experience the same obstacles as him, I have compassion towards writing and helping teens, like myself, through situations that they believe have no escape. * Part 2 A scene from the novel, “The Privilege of Youth: A Teenagers Story,” that really affected me was when he retells his heartbreaking childhood. The author describes his childhood as bleak and pessimistic. The author inputs simple but yet complex sentences to describe his life as a child. For Example, in chapter 2 page 15 middle of the second paragraph Dave states, “I was no longer an animal existing in a darkened basement/ garage, but a real person.” I believe this is...
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...two ways that a parent can handle his child in this situation. You can either talk to him, gently, or you can slap him hard on the face. The child will learn never to break the vase again, by using both methods, but the physical punishment method has its consequences. These consequences are serious and can cause both physical and emotional pain. This emotional pain will soon break out and make the child aggressive and hard going. It will happen. It’s a fact. Many of our friends that are aggressive are usually like this because they come from a background of physical beating. Corporal punishment is a crime and laws should be applied because it can physically, emotionally and mentally alter a child’s progression. The first thing I want to point out is that aggression doesn’t come from nowhere. Everything starts from a source. When a parent beats his child, this child will become aggressive in his teen and adult years. Alice Miller said in her book Breaking Down The Wall Of Silence “Hitting children teaches them to become hitters themselves.” She means that when a child sees his parents using physical punishment, the child, who looks up to his parents, will become aggressive as the parents were. Being aggressive is hardly as bad as having emotional problems in your early years. All of these are consequences of physical punishment. Now, the second thing I want to point out is that physical punishment doesn’t only affect the behavior of the child physically, but also emotionally. Think...
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...A Child Called "It" is an intriguing, yet intimidating journey through the torturing childhood of the author himself. He was being the outcast of his own family and being a victim of severe parental abuse, will leave you in suspense as you wait with anticipation for the end of this little boys struggle to live. This book is a wonderful, and uniquely inspiring story that is sure to touch your heart. He was, a four-year-old boy, who lived with both of his parents and two siblings, had a relatively normal life. Things soon started to change as his parents' marriage started to fall apart, resulting in his mother developing an overwhelmingly dangerous alcohol addiction. With her marriage hanging by a thread, his's mother began to blame him for that happening, thus, resulting in upcoming years of unthinkable torture, as well as physical and mental abuse. At first, this abuse was kept a secret from the world. Including their own family. He had become his mother’s slave. He had to do every household chore she could think of. Even unnecessary things. He was no longer allowed to interact with anyone but his mother and that was only to experience her disgusting torment. But that wasn't the worst of it. He was not allowed to eat. On rare occasion, he would be able to eat the scrapes he cleaned up after his family ate their meals. In the beginning, his father would try to defend his son, and rescue him from the evil grasp of his wife. But his wife would always give the excuse that he was...
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...DIFFERENCE Contents What is child abuse? 3 Emotional abuse 3 Emotional neglect 3 Physical neglect 3 Physical abuse 3 Sexual abuse___________________________________________________________________________ 3 Causes of Child Abuse 4 Parental Profile 4 Age of the parents 4 Low self-confidence 4 Past history of abuse 4 Drug and alcohol problems 4 Mental health problems 4 Financial instability ____________________________________________________________________ 4 The Cinderella effect____________________________________________________________________ 4 Child characteristics 5 The short and long term impacts 5 The short term impacts that this issue may have on an abused child 5 The long term impacts that this issue may have on an abused child _____________________________ 5-6 Political Power, Economics and Human Rights 6 How abuse is linked to these issues________________________________________________________ 6-7 Possible solutions to child abuse 7 What can I do to make a difference? 8 Reference list 8 CHILD ABUSE What is child abuse? Child abuse is defined as the wilful and unjustifiable infliction of pain and suffering whereby the survival, safety, self-esteem, growth and development of a child are endangered. Child abuse can take many different forms. These do not only include sexual and physical abuse, but also emotional abuse and neglect. There are five main types of child abuse: Emotional abuse Emotional...
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...This page intentionally left blank Te n t h E d i t i o n MODERN DATABASE MANAGEMENT Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Editor in Chief: Eric Svendsen Executive Editor: Bob Horan Editorial Project Manager: Kelly Loftus Editorial Assistant: Jason Calcano Director of Marketing: Patrice Lumumba Jones Marketing Manager: Anne Fahlgren Marketing Assistant: Melinda Jensen Senior Managing Editor: Judy Leale Project Manager: Becca Richter Senior Operations Supervisor: Arnold Vila Operations Specialist: Ilene Kahn Senior Art Director: Jayne Conte Cover Designer: Suzanne Behnke Cover Art: Fotolia © vuifah Manager, Visual Research: Karen Sanatar Permissions Project Manager: Shannon Barbe Media Project Manager, Editorial: Denise Vaughn Media Project Manager, Production: Lisa Rinaldi Supplements Editor: Kelly Loftus Full-Service Project Management: PreMediaGlobal Composition: PreMediaGlobal Printer/Binder: Edwards Brothers Cover Printer: Lehigh-Phoenix Color/Hagerstown Text Font: Palatino Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on appropriate page within text. Microsoft® and Windows® are registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation in the U.S.A. and other countries. Screen shots and icons reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Corporation. This book is not sponsored or endorsed by or affiliated with the Microsoft Corporation. Copyright © 2011, 2009, 2007, 2005, 2002...
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