The last post introduced the education experts at yesterday's panel discussion, "How All Children Succeed", and noted their focus on the critical role parents play in their children's education. Today's focus is on two other important issues raised in that discussion: Managing Stress and the Benefits of Failure. Managing Stress Having been a practicing child psychiatrist for eighteen years, [...]
This morning I attended a fascinating panel discussion of educational issues hosted by Kimberly Morgan, President of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. The discussion, "How All Children Succeed", was moderated by Michele Norris, host of National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and featured the following great group of panelists: Paul Tough, author of "How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the [...]
A recent New York Times article, "Before A Test, A Poverty of Words", found here, notes the difference in the number of words young children growing up in poverty hear versus their peers whose parents are professionals. According to a study conducted by psychologists in the 1980's, children of professionals heard, on average, about 1500 more words hourly than [...]
Last Thursday, President Obama signed an Executive Order creating The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, which is designed to support, coordinate and strengthen the work of communities and federal agencies to ensure that African-American youngsters are better prepared for high school, college and productive and successful careers. He announced this Initiative last Wednesday night in [...]
Today's New York Times "Room for Debate" discussion takes on the topic of "The Hovering Parent", and asks a number of columnists whether helicopter parenting has started to "crash and burn". Have parents gotten so involved with managing their children's lives that they are stunting their development into young adults who can think for themselves and learn from their [...]
Have you heard about the commencement speech given by David McCullough Jr., an English teacher at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts, in which he told the graduating seniors "you are not special"? Rather than deliver the expected "go out and conquer the world" graduation speech, the teacher surprised the gathered body with comments like: You are not special. You [...]
For the third year in a row, Chicago's Urban Academy Prep, an all male charter school in one of Chicago's toughest neighborhoods, will be sending its entire senior class of 85 young men to four-year colleges or universities. As reported in the Huffington Post article found here, the school also boasts an impressive record with respect to how their [...]
Today’s post comes from Anne Williams-Isom and Jennifer Jones Austin. Anne Williams-Isom, author of the GCP post “Words of Wisdom from a Montessori Mom” (October 4, 2011) is currently the Chief Operating Officer of the Harlem Children's Zone. She and her husband are raising their three children in Harlem. Jennifer Jones Austin is the Senior Vice President of the [...]
Time to tackle a tough subject: how to protect our sons from sexual predators. With this issue so much in the news, it seems our boys are more vulnerable than ever to deviant behavior by trusted adults. GCP recently attended a seminar on child sex offenders offered by child and adolescent psychotherapist Alicia Henderson, Ph.D. to find out more [...]
A recent study conducted by UCLA and NYU researchers concluded that minority (which included African American, Chinese, Dominican and Russian) students as young as second grade recognize stigmas against their ethnic groups and experience increased anxiety because of these stigmas. However, these elementary school students are more motivated about school than their European American classmates. Read about it here, [...]