The first plane has landed in Honduras, carrying women and children deported from the US earlier this week. Press coverage notes that “U.S. officials said there would be many more.” The L.A. Times report goes on to note that “More than 57,000 unaccompanied minors have sought permission to remain” in the US. And an editorial … Continue reading »
children
A new model of school reform
Last week, The New Yorker reported that Mark Zuckerberg’s 2010 gift of $100 million to the Newark School District hadn’t really improved the schools — with most of the money having been spent on labor contracts and consulting fees. Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), an urban district with demographics and challenges … Continue reading »
Five ways to encourage giving to disadvantaged public schools
As governments have slashed funding for public education, more and more school districts have turned to parents for help—and parents have responded to the call. Case in point: In San Francisco, PTA budgets have increased by 800 percent over the past 10 years, according to an investigation I conducted with colleagues at the San Francisco … Continue reading »
What to do when a pet dies
We tend to be a pet heavy household. At one point, we had two dogs and two cats; when they started passing on, we started getting pet rats, which in my opinion are the perfect pet for kids, despite their horrible PR problem (those who don’t flinch at the word “rat” are few and far … Continue reading »
Comfortable with discomfort
Yesterday, I dropped my kids off at a rustic sleep-a-way camp in the high Sierras, where they will be for the next two weeks. The drop-off didn’t go very well. When I was a kid, I begged and begged to go to sleep-a-way camp with my best friend Rory. I did extra chores to earn it, and I counted … Continue reading »
Helping kids deal with stress
This month on the Raising Happiness blog I wrote about some scary statistics revealing the huge stress that kids are under these days. After providing all that evidence that our children are clearly suffering, I promised a follow-up post about how parents can help kids cope with school-related stress and anxiety. Here are my three specific … Continue reading »
Should we talk to young children about race?
One of the most talked-about recent studies on how parents talk to their children about race, featured in the book “Nurture Shock,” is famous for an odd reason: the study was never completed, and no findings were published. Why? As it turns out, parents had signed up for a study about how parents communicate with their … Continue reading »