Author Description

This wonderful exploration of the meaning and significance of secrecy overturns prevailing views of secrets as undesirable or unhealthy. Childhood's Secrets: intimacy, privacy, and the self reconsidered identifies secrecy as a crucial dimension of human development - showing how common, everyday secrets make children aware of inner space and external worlds, which in turn help them develop a sense of self, personal responsibility, autonomy, and intimacy in human relations- and reveals the fascinating relationships between childhood secrets and adult lives. Thoroughly readable, the book provides dozens of examples of experiences with secrecy as we encounter them in daily life and challenges our assumptions about the ethics of silence, privacy, reserve, lying, and ultimately the morality of life. The volume will be an important resource in courses in foundations of education, child development, and curriculum theory, as well as for professors, researchers, and students of early childhood education, philosophy of education, psychology, counseling, pedagogy, and the history of childhood. Parents and general readers will find this intriguing reading.