It is Black History Month! We all know what this means: Lots of tributes to Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and a host of other Black civil rights leaders, entertainers and athletes will be floating around our children at school this month. While we at GCP believe our sons and daughters and their classmates should know about these [...]
We are still reeling from the tragic loss of basketball great Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi, and seven other passengers on that helicopter flight. For today's Thoughtful Thursday, rather than presenting more poetry to soothe our collective pain, we offer inspirational quotes from the man himself. Taken from interviews over the years and his book "The Mamba Mentality", his [...]
Children's brains grow explosively during the first three years of their lives. Neural connections are made during these years which, if properly nurtured, build a solid base for future success in school, relationships and life. Alternatively, if a child experiences severe stress and trauma during this period, this can lead to emotional and social issues, and delay development. This [...]
This is a really tough one. The tragic deaths of basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his 13 year old daughter Gianna, and seven others, including two of Gianna's basketball teammates, their moms and one of their dads, has us all reeling. This hits us as basketball fans, as parents, as human beings. Hard to wrap our heads around it. And [...]
The Inside Guide to NYC Parenting is coming to back to Hunter College in April 2020!! If you live in or around NYC, you can join us again this year to discover answers to some of the important parenting questions I've been focusing on for years in this blog. I'll be offering resources, tips and advice on key academic issues [...]
Happy Belated Birthday to Dr. King! While we as a nation will officially celebrate on Monday, we should not forget (or let our children forget) that January 15th was his actual birthday. Today's Thoughtful Thursday will break from our normal poetry/inspirational quotes offering to ask: How are you planning to commemorate Dr. King's holiday? Here are an assortment of [...]
Is your son in grades K-5 a reluctant reader? David Banks, leader of the Eagle Academy network of all-boy public schools, wants to help him learn to love reading. Frustrated by the dismal national reading stats for African American and Hispanic boys (only 28% African American and 34% Hispanic fourth grade boys are reading at or above proficiency level, [...]
In less than a week Christmas will be here! In celebration, today's Thoughtful Thursday brings some of our favorite Christmas poetry. First we have the glorious "Christmas Carol" from Paul Laurence Dunbar, followed by the delightful "[little tree]" by e.e. cummings. We end with the traditional crowd favorite, "Twas the Night Before Christmas", which, depending upon which scholars you [...]
Continuing the conversation about mental health in the Black community: I grew up hearing that our people didn't have time for mental health issues. If you had trouble coping, you had to snap out of it or push through, on your own or with God's help. Therapy was for other folks. I know some of you must heard this [...]
For years many of us have heard (and said) that Black people don't commit suicide. But the data on this reveal an alarmingly different truth, especially about our young people. Over the last 10 years, the suicide rate for Black teens 15-17 has increased drastically, from an overall rate of 3.9 suicides per 100,000 per year in 2007 to [...]
