Real Fear, Real Hope: Social Media, Mental Health, and Our Children | Part II
I have two fears in sharing this second in a series of posts with you…
I have two fears in sharing this second in a series of posts with you…
“I think there’s really no question what this data is telling us,” said Dr. Kathleen Ethier, head of the CDC’s adolescent and school health program. “Young people are telling us that they are in crisis.”
We all need help committing to the long view as we parent; it’s easy to let anxiety and social comparison hijack our highest ideals and goals for our children. Enter Jessica Lahey, author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed. In this podcast episode, Sam Shapiro, Head of Marin Montessori School, speaks with Jessica about her top suggestions for parents for helping their kids develop robust independence, inner motivation to learn, and self-possession.
Key topics in the podcast include:
* A helpful parenting hack in the form of a question that will guide us when we’re deciding whether to step in to take over for our child
* The value of focusing on process over product, especially for anxious kids
* The difference between competence and confidence
* The counterbalance parents can provide to the more harmful messages our children receive about the source of their worth
* The value of strengths-based parenting
The U.S. Department of Labor’s prediction that 65 percent of our children’s careers haven’t been invented yet seems even more relevant today: What will the world be like when our children step into it as adults?
A few years before his cancer diagnosis, we had a birthday party to celebrate Perry, my dad. I had a moment of awe and admiration for the joyful, fulfilling life he had created and reached. I raised a glass and said to him, “Here’s to you, Pop. Congratulations on making your dreams into reality.” Without missing a beat as he raised his glass to his lips, he said, “Better to make your reality your dreams.”
Like many aspects of our society, education is in a time of transformation. On my mind specifically are six urgent questions about the future of schools in our society. Though the answers to each aren’t always obvious, understanding the context and specifics of the questions is an important first step for us all…
When I saw this New Yorker cover several years ago I could not take my eyes off of it. As we live through our society’s digital-technological revolution, it symbolized, in playful yet somewhat dystopic imagery, the heart of a concern I was feeling—and still do to some degree.
We are living through this disquieting time together. Should we expose ourselves all day to the 24-hour news cycle, then panic and paralysis will likely be our bedfellows. How can we stay current, while also role modeling for our children an energized and growth-mindset approach to these challenging times? How can we grow our children’s resilience, and our own?
This summer my younger sister and I took a beach walk. Even though we live only a few hours away from each other, we’d not seen each other in person in more than a year. During the walk she said, “…it just feels like the world is spinning off of its axis.”
This summer my younger sister and I took a beach walk. Even though we live only a few hours away from each other, we’d not seen each other in person in more than a year. During the walk she said, “…it just feels like the world is spinning off of its axis.”