This April, I sent a series of posts to the Marin Montessori community that wrestled with some of the pressing issues of the day. We’ve now collected the posts into a single document that you can read and share at your leisure.
We all know it: something is not working for the youth in our society right now. Data, scholarship, and lived experience all tell us that social media and unimpeded technology have disrupted childhood profoundly and, often, destructively. In this episode, Sam Shapiro, head of Marin Montessori School, joins to reflect a bit on the series of blog posts he penned over spring break called Real Fear, Real Hope: Social Media, Mental Health, and Our Children.
First and foremost, forgiveness is an unburdening act of self-compassion; it makes us feel and live better.
What could be more essential — and challenging — than feeding your child food they love and that they need? It can be a struggle, but there’s hope! In this episode, Sam Shapiro, Head of Marin Montessori School, speaks with Nimisha Gandhi, who runs Moon Cycle Nutrition, about her approach to inspiring a love of healthy eating in children.
Before diving into the final installment, let’s start with this helpful framing:
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.”
In this episode, Sam Shapiro, Marin Montessori’s Head of School, speaks to Varun Soni, Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California, about the mental health crisis on college campuses and what we might do about it.
Throughout their deeply felt conversation, they try to work backward to identify the strategies parents of young children can use to increase the likelihood that their kids will enter college healthy, confident, and whole.
Most of the time, when a parent mentions that some undesirable behavior is going on with their young child, it has something to do with one of the child’s three basic physical needs, and if they are met and stable, or not. These are sleeping, eating, and eliminating – and chief among them is sleep.
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
