The book Strong Families Successful Students: helping teenagers reach their full academic potential offers hope and insight to parents who wonder if what they are doing is “good enough” when it comes to helping their children experience success in school. Author Dr. Stephen Gavazzi says, “Nearly every family with a teen who has problems in [...]
Author Puts Positive Spin on Helping Students Succeed
Student, Teacher and Parent Challenge: Tear Down Walls of Separation
My son recently asked if he could sign-up for Challenge Day at his school. He had no idea what the day was about, but said other students had highly recommended the program and, more importantly, attending would get him out of an entire day of class. Am I ever glad I said yes to this [...]
Teen Secrets
Connie Parker, founding director of Wilmington Health Access for Teens and executive director of the N.C. Association of School Based/School Linked Health Centers, reminds us that teens don’t want to disappoint their parents, which is one of the reasons they don’t share their feelings. Ms. Parker clarifies that teen “secretiveness is often not about them, [...]
Teaching Youth Leadership
Does your school offer leadership classes? Emphasizing a developmental approach to leadership for young people, youthleadership.com views today’s youth as an important resource, poised to take on significant roles as leaders within schools, organizations, and communities. While visiting this site, parents, students, and educators can gather ideas, learn more about the importance of youth leadership, [...]
Boys Want Relationships
Boys want relationships more than just sex with the girls they date . Reported in the New York Times, a paper published in Journal of Adolescence says the “overall findings are contrary to cultural beliefs that boys are interested primarily in sex and not relationships.” “Let’s give boys more credit,’’ said study author Andrew Smiler, [...]
Homework for Parents. Really! A Follow Up
In response to the story about the teacher assigning homework to parents, the New York Times invited Sara Bennett, coauthor of The Case Against Homework, to write an op-ed. Her essay wasn’t printed, but is available online. While all parents want their children to develop — socially, emotionally, and intellectually — school-imposed assignments on parents [...]
Homework for Parents. Really!
Sounds crazy, but parents of students in Damion Frye’s ninth-grade Montclair, NJ, English class have homework too. The New York Times writes about assignments that range from commentary on a Franz Kafka story to Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” to a speech by Robert F. Kennedy. And if the dog eats your homework, it could [...]
Declaring a Major in High School
In over 1,200 schools across the country, students are required to pick a major or area of interest. The Christian Science Monitor reports on two different approaches schools take and the criticism levied against the concept. Some schools have an exhaustive list of specific majors — 443 in the case of Florida schools — mapping [...]
Parents & Teens Talking More*
O, to be a skeptic. “The family meal may be threatened with extinction but ‘High-Tech’ parents are now communicating much better with their teenagers and giving them more freedom, says child psychologist Richard Woolfson.” The article, from Reuters, claims that because it’s easier for parents to contact their kids — by email, internet, webcam and [...]
Junk Sleep
You know about junk food. Now there’s sleep that’s not so good for you: junk sleep. And there’s a good chance that your teenager is getting some. A BBC report says: Too many teenagers are damaging their health by not getting enough sleep and by falling asleep with electrical gadgets on, researchers say. A third [...]
