Happy Monday, folks! I had a lovely weekend, and hope everyone else did too. Last week, I wrote about the primary concern of the teenage years to be rule-free by the time senior year roles around. On Thursday I wrote about the general outlines of what a no-rules policy means. On Friday I wrote about [...]
Archives for community
Free cell phones for students?
New York City is apparently considering giving free cell phones to all students. And then rewarding them with free minutes for high grades/test scores/etc. The ban on cell phones in the schools would continue - these cell phones wouldn’t even work during school hours.
I have to admit, this seems like an incredibly poorly [...]
Teenagers make everything more fun
Last night, we threw a huge Halloween party. This was for the kids - the average kiddo age was around 6 or 7, and there were close to 65 of them here. There was a potluck, bobbing for apples, a witch with a withchy brew, and stories around the campfire, among many other [...]
Sistas on the Rise
This is a fabulous organization: Sistas on the Rise. Here is what they say about themselves:
Sistas on the Rise is a space for young women of color ages 13-21, to take ownership and power over their lives and create a healthy community. We acknowledge that young women of color need a safe space to [...]
Intergenerational communities
I have just begun to volunteer with my church’s youth group (high school age). We’re a new-ish church, and the youth group is quite small - only three kids, really, and they aren’t terribly close. So we’re trying to engage new youth, to do community-forming activities, and to draw the youth and [...]
A suicide
On Sunday night a young man, a teenager, took his own life. He was a senior at the same school where my daughter in is Kindergarten. The outpouring of pain and love is overwhelming.
We are a relatively small community, with something like 250 families, but I did not know the young man well. [...]
Banning hugs and school violence
In his column a week ago, Leonard Pitts had this to say:
Sometimes — times of pain, times of commiseration, times of affection, times of joy — you just need to be held. So I was appalled to read this week about a school in Texas — Fossil Hill Middle in Fort Worth — where students [...]
You’ve got one question
When your teenager tells you something shocking, or when you find or walk in on something shocking, or when your teenager’s friends accidentally lets something shocking slip, you have an amazing opportunity. This is your golden opportunity to get to know your kid and maybe their friends at a much deeper level. But [...]
How to gut it out…A Top Ten List For Talking To Teens About…Well, you know.
1.Know yourself. What are your expectations, your hopes, and your fears about your teenager’s sexual and romantic development? You’ll have far more control over yourself and your interactions if you have a full understanding of these things.
2. It’s not about you. Your teenager is, in fact, discovering sex for the first time. They don’t want [...]
The hook-up
I am delighted to say that I am back from vacation, renewed and refreshed, and ready to dive back in to the daily fray.
One of the places I went on vacation was a Unitarian Universalist family church camp. This is a place I have gone for many years, and I saw many old friends [...]
