WARNING: There may be some graphic language in some clips, though we did our best to weed out the worst. Black Friday, 2014. Where will you be? Fast asleep, exhausted from hosting too many guests for Thanksgiving, or in the stores, fighting over discounted televisions and towels? What does it say about our culture when […]
Parenting Education and Mentoring
Archive
On Parents And Instinct, Faith And Science
Faith and science: are the two ever compatible? Can they complement each other, with one kicking in where the other leaves off? Last week I wrote this piece about dyslexia. It’s something I happen to know about because I did a stint as a writer for a hi-tech company that produced software to lessen the […]
What You Need to Know About PTSD in Children and Why
PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, is a psychiatric disorder that can occur after one experiences or witnesses a life-threatening event or a trauma outside the realm of normal human experience. War, earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters, terrorist attacks, serious accidents, or child abuse can cause PTSD. Trauma happens to everyone and is part of […]
Dyslexia Defined: An Unexpected Difficulty
Dyslexia (that catch-all term for reading difficulties) tends to take us by surprise. We’re surprised when a child is diagnosed with dyslexia or when we meet an adult who is unable to read. We’re taken aback because we think of reading as a skill learned in grade school. Reading is, to most of us, something […]
The Montessori Method: Self-Education with Guidance
The Montessori Method, developed by Dr. Maria Montessori and put into use for the first time in 1907, is based on the idea of self-education. Rather than sitting still and absorbing lessons taught by a teacher, the child in the Montessori classroom educates himself with the teacher as his guide. In the Montessori classroom, students use […]
If ADHD Were Fashionable…
What if ADHD were a fashionable diagnosis? What if it was a diagnosis every parent wanted for their child because it meant intelligence and creativity? What if top prep schools, colleges, and B-schools screened students for the ADD/ADHD trait because it was a good predictor of success, the kind found in the likes of Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Air, […]
Weather Chaser, Wrestler, Writer: A Profile of Merle J. Huerta
Merle J. Huerta and I have been friends since we were little girls in Sunday school. For most of our childhood, we didn’t go to the same elementary school, but just kept gravitating back to each other. We just got along, you know? One of my earliest memories is of a painting that hung in […]