Author: Karen Schantz

We have two brief articles for discussion this week, both focusing on school reopenings and the effects on young people:

The first offers tips to parents:
Child Mind Institute: Teenagers and Reopening.

The second is a provocative opinion piece from NBC News–did the author hit or miss the mark? We’ll discuss.
School reopenings are being touted as good for students’ well-being, but that’s wrong.

Remember to register to join us — talk to you soon!

Join us Friday at 11:00 for a discussion of non-binary identity, and what it is like for non-binary youth growing up today. Our jumping off point is this article from the New York Times:

The Struggles of Rejecting the Gender Binary

If you are unable to access the article, let me know at ks548@cornell.edu.

Remember to register here. Talk to you soon!

~ Karen

This week for the club we are going with a video: learn from children and teens about what it’s like Growing Up Trans in this PBS/Frontline documentary.

And if you want to learn more (though it’s not necessary to watch this before the meeting), take a look at this MTV Doc: Transformation.

Don’t forget to register for the meeting.

Have a great week and let’s talk on Friday!

6/18/19 UPDATE – NOTE NEW DATE. This meeting will be held on June 26 rather than June 19, due to the Juneteenth holiday.

This week we turn to the topic of the effects of smart phones on young people. We have two articles. The first one makes large claims about the negative effects of smart phones, especially for mental health. The second is, in part, a critique of that view.

1. Jean M. Twenge, The Atlantic: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?
2. Lisa Guernsey, Slate: Don’t Take Away Your Teen’s Phone

(If you have time to read just one article, make it the second one –Guernsey touches on the first article’s main points, so you’ll get the gist.)

Remember to register for the reading club meeting and join us at 11:00 on Friday!

To many of us our 6/5 discussion of this interview with Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum (main conversation starts 15 minutes in) felt like it just scratched the surface, so we are adding a meeting on Friday, 6/12, 11-12, to continue the discussion.

If you missed the first meeting, don’t hesitate to join us for this one. One topic to consider (though the discussion will not be limited to this):

• Are there ways we can help young people connect across racial/ethnic lines?
• What support or preparation do we need to do this?

Join us–I’m sure we will have another rich conversation! Register here.

~ Karen

“If we can’t talk about it, how can we solve it?”

Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum

This week our selection is a video rather than a reading–an interview with Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum. The former president of Spelman College, Dr. Tatum is author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Next to Each Other in the Cafeteria?, a book that many of us also highly recommend! Originally published in 1997, it has been updated for our time in a 20th anniversary edition.

This Friday we’ll discuss this recent Kansas City Public Library interview with Dr. Tatum . Note that the conversation really gets going about 15 minutes in.

Please remember to register for the June 5 discussion at 11:00!

Hope you can join us!

~ Karen

Mindsets! We’ve all heard about Carol Dweck’s exciting research on growth and fixed mindsets, but are we putting that research to work effectively?

This week we’ll discuss Dweck’s contention that people have not fully understood how to implement her work, and how we might need to slightly shift our approach in order to be more effective.

Read The Atlantic: How Praise Became a Consolation Prize

And remember to register for the May 22 reading club.

See you then!

~ Karen

Hi folks! Just a quick note to let you know there will not be a meeting of the reading club on Friday 5/1 or Friday, May 8. Find all this week’s events on the SRAE Training Calendar.

~ Karen

We’re switching it up this week and have a documentary as well as an article for discussion:

• Let’s Talk About Sex, This 2009 film reveals U.S. attitudes toward adolescent sexuality and the price paid by young people for our unwillingness to talk honestly about sex.

• Sex, Love, and Autonomy in the Teenage Sleepover (PDF). This article by Amy Schalet compares U.S. and Dutch parents’ attitudes toward adolescent sexuality.

We have a lot to talk about! Remember to register for the meeting.

~ Karen

Our first reading club meeting was a big hit! Though Jutta may have broken out into a bit of a sweat trying to put everyone in and out of small groups, it was great to actually lay eyes on so many people and hear your voices and your insights. Don’t forget to register for this week’s meeting and save some time for the readings:

1. From Public Seminar: The Performance of Transgender Inclusion

2. From Teaching Tolerance: Being There for Nonbinary Youth

Hope to see everyone there!

Do you have suggestions for SRAE/CAPP/PREP reading club selections on adolescent development, adolescent sexual health, or positive youth development? Put them in the comments, and be sure to include a link!

~ Karen