Lilian Katz has spent many years conducting workshops for teachers, parents, and students all over the world, and during those workshops she has often referred to her son Stephen, and what she has termed the "intellectual emergencies" she experienced during the years he was growing up. Her responses to these "emergencies," the moments when he analyzed her actions and challenged her decisions as a parent and a teacher, are pulled together in this book.

With music and words from Stephen incorporated into the book, Katz presents an inspirational work for parents and teachers, or anyone who has ever looked into the face of a child and wondered if she was making the right choices.