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Carol Sutton Lewis

Welcome to Ground Control Parenting, a website offering parents resources to help them raise smart, confident Black and Brown children.

Here you will find practical information and resources on what works: what can spark the love of learning for our boys and our girls, keep them engaged in school from nursery through high school, help them understand their history and be prepared for their future, and ensure that they do their best.

You’ll also find information and resources to support and inspire parents.   Parenting is such a demanding job and our skills for this life long position tend to be developed on-the-job, as needed. Many of us raise our children as we were raised (if we had good childhoods) or away from the way we were raised (if we didn’t), following our instincts and crossing our fingers along the way. We need a more focused, intentional approach to best help our children navigate their lives through their formative years.

The term “ground control” often refers to the airport crew that works on the runways to make sure planes are ready for takeoff. We don’t need to be helicopter parents, but we do need to be on the ground control crew making sure our children have what they need for a successful takeoff. Ground Control Parenting wants to make sure that parents have the tools and support to help our children soar.

I am Carol Sutton Lewis, founder of GCP. I’m a lawyer who has spent the last several decades devoted to research and writing about parenting issues.  I have two sons and a daughter who are now adults, ranging in age from 23 to 30.  Personally and through my children I have a great deal of experience with public schools (regular and selective) and independent schools. My mom was a public school teacher, and I benefited greatly from her focus (along with my dad’s) on my education. I began this work with a focus on Black boys, looking for resources to help them achieve and develop confidence. As I continued the work I broadened my research to focus on all Black and Brown children.

I have over 25 years of experience focusing on educational and developmental issues affecting children of color. Over the course of these years I have been involved with many institutions that have helped hone my focus on child development and education. I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford Law School, and and have held board seats sit at both of these schools. I am a former trustee of a K-12 boys private school in New York City. I also spent over 10 years in a parent group run by the leader of a highly respected early childhood program. While working with these groups hasn’t given me all of the answers, it has helped me to know where to find them. I hope you will join me in this quest to do the best we can for our children.

Ground Control Parenting – Helping our children soar!