Parents need to make adulthood look appealing (and worth the hassle of growing up). It seems obvious but when I heard a high school counselor say this recently it resonated with me. We are sending a very positive message to our kids if we can impress upon them the joy we get out of our work, our marriage and our other responsibilities. It we complain about our lives as adults, we aren’t giving them much incentive to grow up or much to look forward to.
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I just stumbled across The Good Men Project. Billed as both a magazine and “a conversation,” the site aims to foster a national discussion centered around modern manhood and the question, “What does it mean to be a good man?” It is not a new post but the site’s “25 Rules for Moms with Sons” has stuck with me. Some of my favorites: teach him the words for how he feels; encourage him to dance; let him lose; give him a way to release his energy; kiss him; and answer him when he asks “why”?
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Only 8.3 percent of students from low-income families currently earn a four-year degree by the age of 24. According to Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce, at the current production rate in higher education, the U.S will fall 5 million short of the workers with post-secondary credentials needed by 2020. http://blog.collegepossible.org/view-the-degree-gap-infographic/
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I love the website iCivics.org. Students can play civics games (run for president, pass new laws, etc.) and access free resources. http://www.icivics.org/
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The free iPad app Mibblio is a musically interactive storybook that gets students excited about reading through the incorporation of music into the story. Children sing along and can play instruments along with the music (guitar, harp, piano, flute, maracas and bongos). mibblio.com
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Most members of my book club listened to our most recent selection as an audio book (while driving and/or exercising). The favorite two sites for our group – audible.com (low cost) and our local library (for free). Audio books are also great for kids who say they hate to read or kids who like multi-tasking (listening while shooting hoops or doing chores).
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There continues to be evidence that learning a second language can be the key to a student’s success. Not only does it increase cognitive function, it also seems to lead to higher rates of success in school and in the workforce. Of students studying a foreign language in the U.S., 69 percent are studying Spanish, 18 percent French, less than 1 percent other languages, and the remaining 12 percent are not studying a language. Students who study a foreign language for all four years of high school have been found to score 140 to 150 points higher on each section of the SAT, and bilingual workers earn five percent to 20 percent more than their peers who speak only English. The only problem? The number of elementary and middle schools offering world language instruction is decreasing, and in middle school that percentage has dropped from 75 percent in 1997 to 58 percent today. (Middlebury Interactive Languages).
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Millennials in college are suffering high rates of depression, according to a recent opinion piece in Slate magazine. They are finding the transition to adulthood completely overwhelming. The issue, said the therapist interviewed, is that people in their 20s no longer view themselves as adults because of benign reasons like longer life spans, and depressing reasons like helicopter parenting and unemployment. Read the entire article here: http://tinyurl.com/kowpkde.
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If you are interested in multiple intelligences – the idea that some students are visual learners, some are auditory learners and some learn by doing – then you will enjoy the page of resources put together by the Ed Tech website. The site categorizes apps and learning tools by how well they suit each kind of learner. tinyurl.com/onof5qv
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There has been a lot of debate over the results of the recent testing of 15-year-olds worldwide (the PISA literacy, math and science tests are administered in 65 countries every three years). American students score right around the world average in all categories and came in 17th in literacy, 21st in science and 26th in math. While the U.S. Dept of Education was embarrassed by the scores, defenders feel they are perfectly fine considering the socioeconomic challenges of many of our students. Every news article seems to suggest different reasons for the mediocre scores – search “PISA 2013” and you will get the drift. While the differences between the U.S. education system and countries abroad should not be reduced to statistics, Amanda Ripley’s “The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way” is a lively read that tries to tease out some answers. Ripley follows U.S. high school exchange students studying overseas and she interviews foreign students studying at our high schools.
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Along those lines, I have another book recommendation. “Raising Global Children: Ways Parents Can Help Our Children Grow Up Ready to Succeed in a Multicultural Global Economy” is a combination parenting-advocacy book that details what raising global children means, why global awareness is important and how to develop a global mindset. According to the National Research Council, Americans’ “pervasive lack of knowledge about foreign cultures and foreign languages threatens the security of the United States as well as its ability to compete in the global marketplace and produce an informed citizenry.”
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A recent article in Time Magazine tackles the question of what is “ailing” teenage boys. Only 43 percent of college students today are male, down from 58 percent in 1970. Even more troubling is the fact that 81 percent of suicides in the 10 to 24 age bracket are males. Author Rosalind Wiseman suggests that boys are struggling more with modern adolescence than girls. Her book “Masterminds and Wingmen” is next on my list. Wiseman has also published a book of advice for boys. You can read an excerpt at time.com/boys.
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In the category of good news, according to the nonprofit that tracks this data, only 16 percent of teens have had sex by age 15 and in 2012 the birthrate among teens dropped to its lowest level in 73 years. It is currently half what it was in 1991. Over the past 20 years, among high school students, the percentage who say they have ever had sex dropped from 54.1 percent to 47.4 percent. (Source CDC and Guttmacher Institute)
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The computer game Minecraft is frequently cited as the best example of the potential of learning through games because it encourages critical thinking, collaboration and problem-solving. The PBS website Mindshift suggests six other games that it feels are equally good for the growing brain: Garry’s Mod; Kerbal Space Program, Sound Shapes, DIY, Stencyl and Code Academy. If you go online to read this article, you can access hot links to the game sites. http://tinyurl.com/q9azmgv
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I had almost forgotten that comedian Al Franken was elected senator in Minnesota until I saw that he is the co-sponsor of my new favorite bill being introduced in Congress. The bill would create a grant program for universities to “create and expand the use of textbooks that can be made available online” with free access to the public. Students would have access to digital textbooks and not be forced to buy the latest edition from their campus bookstore.
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The new and improved SAT has been delayed until 2016, one year later than originally announced. That means this year’s freshmen will likely be the first class to take it. The College Board announced the overhaul, after having been surpassed by the ACT for the first time last year. The new test should be better aligned with the Common Core State Standards.
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The author of “Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World,” feels strongly that too many of us do a terrible job of conversing with young girls. When we start every conversation with a compliment on their outfit or appearance, we are sending them a powerful message that Lisa Bloom feels later manifests itself in low self-esteem, high rates of eating disorder and a depressing trend of girls under 12 sporting a full face of makeup. You can buy the book here.
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Are you curious where the young inventors, artists and moguls featured in Forbes Magazine’s recent “30 under 30” feature went to college? While many attended Harvard, Stanford and Princeton, the website 60secondrecap hunted down the college affiliation of each of the several hundred people mentioned in the article and found lots of surprises. Interestingly, Arizona State, which accepts 89 percent of its applicants, has more “30 under 30” alumni than the University of Chicago, Duke, Dartmouth and Cornell. Both the original article, and the website’s dissection of it are interesting. 60secondrecap.com/forbes-30-under-30-colleges
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Anne Schramm, of Sylvan Learning Center, offers five tips for parents to help their children study more efficiently and effectively in the New Year:
• Planners are a sanity saver. Making sure a student has one central place, such as a log sheet or calendar to track major deadlines, due dates, events and extracurricular activities, will help the student visualize the coming week, manage time efficiently and stay on schedule.
• Breaking it down. When it comes to major tests or big projects, there is nothing worse than not knowing where to start. Knowing when to take a deep breath, step back and break a daunting undertaking into smaller, more manageable tasks is a key skill.
• Organization is a must. By becoming disciplined at keeping reading materials and notes in logical order, students can find what they need right away, cut down on time spent tracking things down and increase time spent actually studying.
• Taking good notes matters. Taking good notes helps keep kids’ grades up, especially in middle or high school. Parents can help children learn to boil down information into note-like form by encouraging them to pick out main ideas in conversations, news reports, church sermons or magazine articles.
• Study like clockwork. The most successful test-takers don’t cram the night before. Students will do their best on tests when they regularly review the information every day at home. Having children work with friends to study, or in small groups outside of school, is a great way to encourage this.
Schramm says children are not born with study skills. “Like most other academic skills, study skills are learned. The good news is, parents can teach their children some simple and effective guidelines and techniques that will help them understand and retain information, unravel complex ideas and feel confident and prepared when test days roll around.”
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Just in time for Christmas, I want to again mention the girl-power toy company GoldieBlox. GoldieBlox has developed a set of interactive books, games and toys to “disrupt the pink aisle and inspire the future generation of female engineers.” CEO Debbie Sterling came up with the idea when she found herself one of the few women in her engineering program at Stanford. Her new gender-stereotype-bashing video for the toys is awesome and is getting a lot of buzz – http://tinyurl.com/nr87hrn
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A new list of the top college towns in America is out, from the American Institute for Economic Research. The list goes to 70, but the top five college towns are: Ithaca, N.Y.; Ames, Iowa; State College, Penn.; Crestview, Fla.; and Iowa City, Iowa. Towns were evaluated based on the number and diversity of the college students living there; arts and leisure opportunities; cost of living; earnings potential; and other factors. Read the complete list at aier.org.
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Meanwhile, a new global index has ranked 25 of the world’s major cities based on qualities most attractive for people between the ages of 15 and 29. Metropolises were ranked using 80 different indicators, including business, lifestyle and entertainment and they are, from number 1: Toronto, Berlin, New York City, Dallas, Paris, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Seoul. http://tinyurl.com/l5yb356.
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Somehow this is both obvious and shocking. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have found that university students who were spanked as children are more likely to engage in criminal behavior (no matter where they grew up and no matter how loving and helpful their parents were in general). http://tinyurl.com/ktyx8wq.
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Why are young women dominating academically in high school but showing less success in college and in their careers? A recent article in the Huffington Post suggests that girls rapidly lose self-esteem in college. “Female students who enter college as self-assured, ambitious individuals, graduate with less confidence, feeling anxious, doubtful and depressed, and no one can figure out exactly why.” The author, a female college student herself who is experiencing this firsthand, said that in her first week at her dream college she passed a poster in her dorm hall stating, “Don’t worry if you fail your finals; just pray your future husband is passing his!” She has been disheartened by the sexism she has encountered and suggests college and workplace atmospheres may be to blame. Read the entire article here: http://tinyurl.com/mus3o27.
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The deadlines are fast approaching for the handful of government-sponsored programs that enable youth ages 15-25 to live/travel/study abroad for free. Go to http://tinyurl.com/mbcoau7
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There are definitely good video games and bad video games. Former English teacher and current game developer Catriona Wallis said recently in the Huffington Post, “Good video games can teach kids how to learn things on their own quickly and then use these skills to achieve, make constant and rapid decisions that affect things they do, improve hand-eye coordination, develop creative problem solving skills, exercise control in challenging circumstances, be persistent, pay attention to detail and think strategically and laterally as well as linearly and logically.” Experts suggest you play with your child, and one favorite game cited is Gamestar Mechanic. I would add any of the SimCity games to the list. The resources in her recent Huffington Post article can help you tell the good from the bad. http://tinyurl.com/lgm3bya
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Teens who stay up late at night perform more poorly academically and emotionally, according to researchers at UC Berkeley. By graduation, night owl teens had lower GPA scores, and were more vulnerable to emotional problems than teens with earlier bedtimes (Journal of Adolescent Health). The temptations of technology have made it even more difficult for teens to get enough sleep. The good news is that better sleep patterns can be adopted anytime. Read more here.
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Newsweek released its list of the top public high school in the country. Schools are ranked based on how successful they are in producing college ready grads (graduation rate, college acceptance rate, AP/IB tests taken and passed per student and average SAT/ACT scores. (http://tinyurl.com/m6g9t7b)
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I have to admit that I always appreciate it when other moms admit how hard they find it to try to “have it all.” A new book, “Maxed Out: American Moms on the Brink,” by Katrina Alcorn suggest that working moms, in particular, are always having to say they are sorry … to their husbands, to their kids and to their co-workers … and that they are apologizing for not being able to do the impossible. I haven’t finished the book but it broaches a topic that isn’t going to go away anytime soon.
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If you have a senior in high school, “17 Things I Want Myself to Remember Senior Year” may be meaningful to you and them. You can read the article by Pennsylvania high school senior Katy Ma here: http://tinyurl.com/n6vpane. My favorites are: not everything will happen according to plan; bring a camera with you wherever you go; if you haven’t been outside in more than two days, it’s a problem; thank everyone as much as you can; and celebrate the victories but don’t dwell in pride.
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Study abroad by American students has more than tripled over the past two decades. Despite these increases, fewer than 10 percent of U.S. college students study abroad during their undergraduate years, even though studying abroad is the same price or cheaper than a semester at a student’s home university. The most popular choice for U.S. students is the United Kingdom (then Italy, Spain and France). In terms of who comes here, China now sends as many students to the U.S. as the next four countries combined: India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Canada. (Chronicle of Higher Ed)
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“I Wonder What It Feels Like To Be Dyslexic” is a cool coffee table book that uses graphic design to provide a visual sense of how dyslexic students see words, giving parents and teachers a much better sense of the frustrations of the learning disability. You can take a look at pages from the book at http://tinyurl.com/lnu9ygw.
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Does your student love Khan Academy, the website that has a clear, engaging tutorial video for basically any possible topic at any grade level? If so, consider becoming a beta tester. Students sign into New Feature Explorer and can test features before their release. http://tinyurl.com/l6xr2ft
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ClassWish is a free website that organizes cash or supply donations for schools. Teachers and PTOs can create supply wish lists and spread the word with emails and printable flyers. Supporters can get a receipt for their tax-deductible contribution. Classwish.org
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Wordplay is a free online game to help students learn and remember Spanish words and phrases. Students can master new words with a simple game that adjusts to each student’s unique needs. The game helps students to learn the proper meaning, pronunciation and spelling of each word. A mastery meter fills as students develop mastery, and turns blue as they build long-term retention. wordplay.com
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If your student is transitioning to a new school next year, be it kindergarten, middle school or high school, consider signing up for the new school’s email newsletter today to ease the transition and to learn more about the campus and ways to get involved before next year.
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Lorna Sheridan's Education Roundup 
Lorna,
I so love receiving this newsletter. It is so thought-provoking. It always covers issues that are relevant and of great substance.
Thank you for all your time on this. Great job!
Kirsten