Suited for use by classrooms, groups, and individuals, Charting Your Course: A Life-Long Guide to Health and Compassion is a positive answer to the negative pressures that young people face today: from depression, to substance abuse, to lack of confidence or direction. In the first half of of the book, Sally Coleman and David S. Anderson spell out seven areas of healthy living--attitude, personal values, holistic health, relationships, community, the natural world, and service to others--and articulate seven corresponding principles aimed at helping people design a life that will allow them to flourish.
In the second half, dozens of people, including Elie Wiesel, Joe Paterno, Matthew Fox, Father Theodore Hesburgh, and Jane Alexander, answer the question: "If you could write only one letter to young people before you die, what legacy would you leave them?" Their answers address issues ranging from substance abuse to religion, from parenting to sexual orientation. Finally, the editors provide the reader with workbook pages aimed at developing his or her own plan for charting a unique and healthy course through life.
Industry Reviews
"Charting Your Course is an invaluable resource for anyone working with college students or preparing professionals or paraprofessionals to work with college students. This book identifies key developmental issues and presents many valuable activities to help students address these issues. Its unique approach to values clarification is a strength of the text." --Angelo F. Gadaleto, Professor and Chair, Department of Counselor Education, West Chester University "Written for young adult readers but ideal for all ages, Charting Your Course provides an ideal framework for holistic health as well as understanding, diminishing, and hopefully eliminating the epidemic abuse of alcohol and other drugs on college campuses. A unique feature are 'legacy letters, ' these are letters written on request by fifty people in response to the question of 'What would you leave young people if you were to die?' These engaging letters address such issues as substance abuse, values, sexual orientation, religion, quality of life, AIDS, child abuse, parenting, and the spirit of living. Charting Your Course is an inspired compendium of sound advice and reflection." --The Midwest Book Review "Written for young adult readers but ideal for all ages, Charting Your Course provides an ideal framework for holistic health as well as understanding, diminishing, and hopefully eliminating the epidemic abuse of alcohol and other drugs on college campuses. A unique feature are 'legacy letters, ' these are letters written on request by fifty people in response to the question of 'What would you leave young people if you were to die?' These engaging letters address such issues as substance abuse, values, sexual orientation, religion, quality of life, AIDS, child abuse, parenting, and the spirit of living. Charting Your Course is an inspired compendium of sound advice and reflection." --The Midwest Book Review "Charting Your Course is an invaluable resource for anyone working with college students or preparing professionals or paraprofessionals to work with college students. This book identifies key developmental issues and presents many valuable activities to help students address these issues. Its unique approach to values clarification is a strength of the text." --Angelo F. Gadaleto, Professor and Chair, Department of Counselor Education, West Chester University "In this day and age where it seems the only clear messages we get from our 'blameless' society are those that assign fault with others and fail to acknowledge the need for personal responsibility in our everyday dealings, it is very refreshing to see a work of this nature that clearly reminds us that we are in charge of our own health, wellness and happiness. This is a valuable resource for college students and anyone who values self-exploration . . ." --Drew Hunter, Executive Director of the BACCHUS and GAMMA Peer Education Network "This book is magical. I sat down to read it, and when I stood up, I felt twenty years younger and fifty pounds lighter. Charting Your Course guides, inspires, and envelopes the reader with energy and spirit. College students find themselves in a confusing and stressful environment, and this book offers a wonderful way for them to begin finding their paths toward health, confidence, and a personal peace." --Wilkie A. Wilson, Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University "A roadmap for body AND soul! We stand always at the crossroads needing answers to questions large and small. Charting Your Course provides insight and direction from those who have travelled the wilderness and found the way to live-through with purpose and joy." --Dr. Sheppard B. Kominars, Lecturer and author of Accepting Ourselves and Accepting Ourselves and Others "Our interest in and concern for our society of young adults, their potential growth, mental and physical, and their moral, emotional and spiritual development, should be our primary goal and gift to our progeny. How to package that gift in a comprehensive and meaningful way is the dilemma. Charting Your Course has provided us with a clear and concise framework to reach that goal by identifying seven life-health principles, with personal worksheets to establish individual milestones. Charting Your Course is more than a textbook for holistic health; it can be a game plan for a bright future." --John C. Lawn, former Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration
