American Prom
Richard G. Calo, Ph.D.
At last! A book that takes prom seriously as a deeply meaningful event for teenagers. Written for teens and their parents and counselors, it does not focus on hairdos and dresses or on how-to lists and planning calendars. Instead, it focuses on the meaning of prom: what teens use it for, what parents believe about it, why it is so desperately important to teenagers, and the role it plays in moving into young adulthood.
Filled with hundreds of prom-night stories that teenagers shared with Richard G. Calo, American Prom is filled with accounts of first love and all the hope and anxiety that comes with it. Surprising to the author — many of the best stories came from guys, not girls.
In these stories, teens pour out their hearts about emotional issues, not the least of which are how to turn a wished-for prom date into a real prom date, how to make one's lifetime crush crush back, how to handle boys (or girls) who demand sex on prom night, and a thousand other things having to do with relationships and sexuality, not with primping and how one looks.
Organized into three stages — Asking, Prom Night, and After Prom — American Prom illustrates how prom has changed from a one-night event to something far more complex, almost a cultural phenomenon. Indeed, prom is now about transition, not just from high school to college or the workforce. It now signifies the coming of age as an adult that cannot be accomplished in a single evening. Prom provides the space in which the transition can work itself out.
American Prom helps teens prepare for their own prom, mentally and emotionally. For parents, it provides a window of understanding about what teens are preparing for and how they should best prepare themselves. And for adults, teachers, and counselors, Calo offers the most sustained glimpse into the contemporary prom and what teens think about it than has ever been available in the past.
| RICHARD G. CALO, Ph.D., founded Cyberglyphics — a market and research company with special emphasis on using the Internet as a marketing tool — in 1999. Much of what he learned about proms as a coming-of-age ceremonial in North America was garnered from the relationships developed from that site. He lives in Eagle Bridge, New York. |
$16.95, Paperback
ISBN-10: 1-58182-561-7 (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-58182-561-9 (Paperback)
Paperback Currently Available
