This Friday, July 10, I will be participating in a panel conversation with Gregory Hess, President of Wabash College and Dr. Robert Franklin, Director of Religion, Chautauqua Institution and former President of Morehouse College, discussing the practical and institutional ways to support boys' healthy development. Our discussion comes at the end of a week-long examination of the theme "Boys [...]
Happy Father's Day from GCP to all of the fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and all of the wonderful men who give fatherly love and direction to children who may not be theirs by birth but are theirs by choice. Here are some poems and thoughts about fatherhood. Those Winter Sundays Sundays too my father got up early and put his [...]
With great sorrow we turn yet again to the topic of how we talk to our sons about a senseless tragedy. This time it is the horrific massacre of nine Black parishioners in a historic black church in Charleston by a 21-year-old white young man. Images of the victims smiling with their families in the days prior and of [...]
Do you have an Instagram account? Is it filled with selfies, pictures of you partying with friends, inspirational messages, and clever hashtags? Do you have loads of followers and regularly get tons of "likes" and supportive messages? Or do you have no clue as to what an Instagram account is or what you do with it? When your sons' [...]
Now is the time to focus on your sons' summer reading plans. If you have an avid reader, make time to stop at the library or the book store and pick up some fun books for the summer. If your son would rather do almost anything other than read, then you will need to give him some incentive to [...]
GCP had breakfast today with a longtime friend who offered a bit of valuable parenting insight which we want to pass along. She is the mother of three children and runs a non profit organization dedicated to educating economically disadvantaged children. We were trading stories about our (college aged) sons at breakfast, and shaking our heads as we focused [...]
After a wonderful Spring Break, is GCP back in action with this week's Thoughtful Thursday. Today we feature a classic Gwendolyn Brooks poem, "We Real Cool", written in 1960, and "The Golden Shovel", a poem written in response by Terrance Hayes in 2010. Hayes is a poet who considers themes of popular culture, race, music, and masculinity in his [...]
Parents of teenaged Black boys know about the conversation we are obligated to have with our sons as we send them out into a world in which they can be misjudged and endangered simply because they are teenaged Black boys. Because we need them to stay safe, we know we have to tell them what to do and how [...]
We at GCP have been thinking a lot about the impact of technology on child rearing. Tablets, phones and computer screens can enhance children's development, increase their school readiness, and introduce them to ideas and places to which they might not otherwise have any access. But they also can be distracting, overwhelming, and can interfere with or even impair [...]
O.K. all you parents who are either in the midst of the school application process for your pre-school or kindergarden son or have submitted your applications and are counting down the months until you are scheduled to hear the responses, take a deep breath and let it go slowly. Time for a reality check. We've all heard the depressing [...]