With Christmas a mere week away, some combination of school holiday programs, final exams, holiday prep and Christmas shopping are probably wearing many parents down. So for today's Thoughtful Thursday, here are a few holiday poems designed to lift your spirits and give you and your sons something to smile about during this pre-Christmas rush. Enjoy. The Boy Who [...]
GCP was out and about today and in our travels we passed the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. Looking up at the huge tree with its sparkling lights we couldn't help but feel a touch of the Christmas spirit. And so here are a couple of Christmas poems from Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes to help you do the [...]
On this Thoughtful Thursday our thoughts could be on nothing else but the incredible failure of another grand jury to indict a police officer for killing an unarmed Black man. And using an illegal chokehold to take him down as a cellphone camera recorded the entire thing, so there is no question as to what transpired. As this is [...]
We have all heard and seen the aftermath of the Ferguson grand jury's decision not to indict Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown. We've had many conversations with our friends and colleagues about what a failure to indict means for the Brown family, for Ferguson, for black boys everywhere. But as time passes after this decision, we at GCP [...]
We have all heard and seen the aftermath of the Ferguson grand jury's decision not to indict Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown. We've had many conversations with our friends and colleagues about what a failure to indict means for the Brown family, for Ferguson, for black boys everywhere. But as time passes after this decision, we at GCP [...]
Happy Thanksgiving to you all from GCP! Even though we took Thursday off to celebrate with family and friends and stuff ourselves silly, we could not let this week pass without a Thoughtful Thursday for the holiday. And so today we offer a lineup of Thanksgiving inspired poetry from African American poets. First, the very appropriate "Thanksgiving Time" from [...]
Even though Election Day has come and gone, we can continue to have conversations with our sons about the importance of voting. Today's Thoughtful Thursday is the poem "Vote of Die", written by Margaret Block, a civil rights activist and member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In this poem she champions some of the unsung heroes of the civil [...]
If your son is applying to boarding school or college this fall you may well be in the thick of school visits these days. Here are a few tips for making these visits as productive as possible for you and your son: Encourage your son to commit to this process of looking at schools, no matter how confused or [...]
On Saturday GCP had another live event: A conversation with GCP mom Kathryn Chenault. Kathryn, an attorney who stepped away from her professional life to devote time and effort to raising her two sons (who are now wonderful young men in their 20's), graciously hosted us at her glorious home. Beautiful surroundings, great weather, and wonderful advice from a [...]
With Halloween upon us, today's Thoughtful Thursday poems are appropriately unsettling and haunting. They are written by well known African American poets, Jean Toomer (1894-1967) and Claude McKay (1889-1948). Enjoy. Reapers Black reapers with the sound of steel on stones Are sharpening scythes. I see them place the hones In their hip-pockets as a thing that’s done, And start [...]