Here is a great story to talk with your sons about: Zach Hodges, an African-American senior at Harvard University, is one of the top small college draft picks for the upcoming NFL draft. While NFL pundits don't believe he will go early in the draft, they think he has a good chance of getting picked by an NFL team. [...]
Ten African-American poets contributed to the Migration Series Poetry Suite created in celebration of the Jacob Lawrence exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The works of a few of them are below. Enjoy. Thataway And the migrants kept coming —Jacob Lawrence Was walking. Was walking & then waiting for a train, the 12:40 to [...]
If you live in or anywhere near New York City, or are planning a visit to NYC over the summer, make sure to take your sons and daughters to "One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series and Other Visions of the Great Movement North" at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). It is a wonderful exhibition that has at its [...]
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 [...]
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international economic organization of 34 countries, has recently released the results of its global study of gender equality in education, and the news is not good for boys: they are "significantly more likely" than girls to be less engaged with school and have poor academic achievement. The OECD suggests several [...]
Last night's Grammys were full of interesting performances and surprising wins (Beck, what?). No doubt your sons are familiar with many of the winners. But one Grammy award they might not have focused on deserves their attention: The 2015 Grammy (Children’s Album) was awarded to Neela Vaswani for her narration of I AM MALALA: HOW ONE GIRL STOOD UP [...]
A recent NYTimes article tells a great story that is right up our alley at GCP. Chris Lewis is a 6'9" high school junior at Milton High School in Milton, Georgia. A power forward, he is one of the top basketball juniors in the nation. He has been recruited by colleges since he was in middle school, and as [...]
NYTimes columnist Charles Blow writes today of getting a call on Saturday that his son, a Yale junior, had been held at gunpoint that evening after leaving the library. By the Yale Campus Police. Apparently they were responding to a burglary call on campus and determined that he fit the description of the alleged burglar. According to Blow, a [...]
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 [...]
How many of us have told our sons to "study smarter, not harder?" Sounds good, but how do you actually do that? In the recently published book, "How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where and Why It Happens", New York Times science reporter Benedict Carey looks at the science of learning to try to answer this question. [...]