Why This Book?<br > So many times since the appearance of The Teen-Age Slant，<br >coauthored by Jerry Merriman， I have been asked by parents:<br >"Why don t you do a book for parents? We need help as ur-<br >gently as do the teen-agers!"<br > I had been a teen-a~er; and remembering the complications<br >of those years， and haVing worked with teen-agers for most of<br >my adult years， I felt I t~d a degree of qualification to write for<br > teeners. However， I am not a parent， and， therefore， I have had<br > greater reluctance to undertake a book for parents， lest I appear<br > to be posing as an authority in an area of life in which I have<br > not had actual experience.<br > Two conversations changed my mind in that regard. First，<br > two parents said to me: "You have not reared children of your<br > own， but you have been a substitute parent many times. Fur-<br > thermore， young people talk to you more fully and frankly than<br > they talk to their parents generally， and you could be most help-<br > ful to those of us who are parents by sharing with us the needs<br > they share with you."<br > Later， several young people in a high school in which I had<br > spent a week in answering their questions suggested this possi-<br > bility: "Dr. Swor， why don t you write a book for parents， giving<br > them some of the information which you have given to us? They<br > might listen to you in some instances in which they wouldn t<br > listen to us."<br > 9<br ><br >