In today's Thoughtful Thursday we will hear from two wise women poets: Anne Spencer and Audre Lorde. Anne Spencer(1882-1975) was a Harlem Renaissance poet and civil rights activist. Though she lived in Lynchburg Virginia her whole life, she maintained close friendships with many Harlem Renaissance writers, including James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, and W.E.B. Du Bois, and her home [...]
Today is Presidents' Day, (which happened to land this year on George Washington's actual birthday), and Friday was Valentine's Day, so we are offering a two-for-one Thoughtful Thursday this Monday. Yep. You're welcome! For our Presidents' Day offering, here are two wonderful poems composed for Presidential inaugurations: "On the Pulse of Morning" which Maya Angelou (1928-2014) delivered at President [...]
We are still reeling from the tragic loss of basketball great Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi, and seven other passengers on that helicopter flight. For today's Thoughtful Thursday, rather than presenting more poetry to soothe our collective pain, we offer inspirational quotes from the man himself. Taken from interviews over the years and his book "The Mamba Mentality", his [...]
Children's brains grow explosively during the first three years of their lives. Neural connections are made during these years which, if properly nurtured, build a solid base for future success in school, relationships and life. Alternatively, if a child experiences severe stress and trauma during this period, this can lead to emotional and social issues, and delay development. This [...]
The Inside Guide to NYC Parenting is coming to back to Hunter College in April 2020!! If you live in or around NYC, you can join us again this year to discover answers to some of the important parenting questions I've been focusing on for years in this blog. I'll be offering resources, tips and advice on key academic issues [...]
Is your son in grades K-5 a reluctant reader? David Banks, leader of the Eagle Academy network of all-boy public schools, wants to help him learn to love reading. Frustrated by the dismal national reading stats for African American and Hispanic boys (only 28% African American and 34% Hispanic fourth grade boys are reading at or above proficiency level, [...]