Generation Z: Their Voices, Their Lives - Hardcover

Chloe Combi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0091958776 ISBN 13: 9780091958770

Publisher: Cornerstone, 2015

Synopsis

Generation Z have never had to save their pocket money to buy an album. They laugh when you tell them there used to be four channels on TV. Not many of them have grandparents that fought in a war. They've never known a world without the internet and have grown up with violence and porn at their fingertips with an object barely known to just one generation before them: a mobile phone. Generation Z are growing up in a world of widening social inequality, political apathy and economic uncertainty. They join gangs, are obese, have underage sex, drink, commit crime and are a menace to society - or so the media leads us to believe. Chloe Combi has interviewed hundreds of teenagers and children born between 1994 and 2005. She has talked to some of the richest and poorest in kids in the country. She has travelled on night buses with gangs, gone on a post-GCSE trip to Glastonbury, hung out in crack houses where teenagers get high, rehabilation centres where they get help and churches where they find God. Chloe has found that Generation Z are selfish, violent, scared, sex-obsessed and apathetic. She has also found them delightful, curious, kind, and worried about their futures. Generation Z is an emotional, illuminating, sometimes dark, sometimes hilarious odyssey through the lives of this generation told in their own voices.

About this title

About the Author

Chloe Combi is a former school teacher. She is a columnist for the Times Educational Supplement, and also writes for the Independent, Guardian, Marie Claire and the New Statesman. She's a regular on TV and radio debates including Channel 4 News, Newsnight, Sky News and Woman's Hour. An article she wrote on pornography and children in 2012 precipitated a major national debate and she has been quoted by David Cameron in the House of Commons. Her work on child poverty, gangland culture and street violence granted her an invite to No. 10 and she is a consultant on youth issues for the Mayor of London. Her youth project, Write Club, has had interest from UK documentary makers.

Review

"Every politician seeking election next month should read this book. I think it taught me as much about our country as anything I have ever read" Evening Standard "An important and timely book. These are voices that need to be heard." -- Anthony Horowitz "The book gives educators much to consider ... The greatest value of GENERATION Z is a reminder of all that we love about our students - their humanity, their kindness, their moments of strength, their insights. It's easy to see the echoes of students in our own classrooms; beyond the disrupters, preeners and attention-seekers, there are human beings going through tremendous changes. I found it a refreshing, confronting and heartfelt reminder of why I came into the classroom." Times Educational Supplement "An important and deeply revealing book showcasing what it is really like to be a teenager in the twenty-first century." -- Boris Johnson "Thrillingly candid interviews with 'Generation Z' display all their fixations, their humour, and the frightening power of technology in their pockets." Newsweek

About this edition

• Publisher: Cornerstone
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0091958776
• ISBN 13: 9780091958770
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320