GCP is at Chautauqua Institution, for the end of their week discussing "Boys Will Be Boys, Then Men". This week's Thoughtful Thursday (the Friday morning edition) comes from the amazing performance here last night of Daniel Bernard Roumain's symphonic composition of "Meditations on Raising Boys", featuring Marc Bamuthi Joseph performing spoken word with an all male chorus of 10 [...]
Summer is almost here! But along with summer fun comes summer slide, the learning loss that occurs when children do no educational activity during the summer months of no school. That loss is real: studies show that most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills over the summer months. Experts also agree that [...]
Zach Hodges, the Harvard defensive end featured in an earlier post who overcame great personal tragedy to become a star football player at Harvard, has signed with the Indianapolis Colts. While Hodges was not selected during the NFL draft as he had hoped, he signed with the Colts over the weekend after they expressed strong interest in him as [...]
NYC educator Alvin Irby is the founder of Barbershop Books, a New York City–based project that puts child friendly reading nooks and a variety of fun and engaging books into neighborhood barbershops, so young Black boys are encouraged to read while they wait for a haircut. With Barbershop Books Irby seeks to connect Black men to Black boys’ early [...]
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 [...]
Common Sense Media, the organization that helps parents navigate the treacherous waters of modern day media and technology, has posted the thoughtful piece "10 Great Role Models for Boys" on its website which you can find here. Included in their list of media role models is Neil DeGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist extrodinaire on "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey". One of our [...]
"Little Ballers", Crystal McCrary's wonderful documentary, follows a group of young AAU basketball teammates (including her son Cole) as they pursue their hoop dreams and a championship season. It premiered on Nick Sports TV (a programming block on Nicktoons) last week and will be shown again tonight at 9pm and tomorrow (March 1) at 10pm (EST). McCrary gives us [...]
Last night was Oscar night, and the two highlights of the evening came courtesy of "Selma". First, we were treated to John Legend and Common's amazing performance of the song "Glory", which was nominated in the Best Original Song category. Then, when they won the Oscar for "Glory" (to no one's surprise), they gave acceptance speeches which were, well, [...]
Happy Valentine's Day! In honor of this love-celebrating holiday, here are some love poems from Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), renowned poet, novelist and playwright of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Dunbar's first poems were published in a Dayton newspaper when he was 14 years old. While much of Dunbar's more well known [...]
Today 12 additional cities joined the #SelmaForStudents movement and announced their success in raising money to send students to see the movie "Selma" for free. Read about it here. African American leaders, now joined by generous citizens of all hues, are working together across the country to ensure that the next generation understands and appreciates the important history of [...]