Back-to-school is always a time when parents and teachers revisit what is important for children and how to best support their positive development. This popular list of back-to-school articles, started in 2012, has been updated for the 2023-24 school year. Some articles focus on the challenges of schooling during the […]
Compass-Inspired
Skeptics has been given a bad rap in modern society. Why? Because skepticism is often confused with cynicism. Let’s explore the distinctions and why it’s important to teach children the art of becoming a skeptic. A cynic distrusts most information they see or hear, particularly when it challenges their own […]
Curiosity
Whether your child is playing sports now or considering participating in a sport, you likely have an opinion about the value of sports in children’s lives. You may have your own positive or negative experiences with sports as a child. The social, emotional, and physical benefits of playing sports in […]
Resilience
Most educators agree that academic integrity plays an essential role in learning. Will artificial intelligence (AI) destroy or facilitate academic integrity? How do teachers create a classroom culture of integrity, despite fears that AI and programs like ChatGPT (“Generative Pretrained Transformer”) can encourage plagiarism and dishonesty? While we do not […]
Integrity
Metacognitive strategies, when employed in the classroom and with homework, help students think about their own thinking. This type of self-assessment helps young people gain greater awareness of their life experiences and achieve at higher levels. What is Metacognition? Metacognition is an aspect of introspection and self-awareness that enables individuals […]
Self-Awareness
I’ve been an advocate for family engagement in education for many years. But throughout those years, one of the most challenging tasks has been to define this two-way partnership. What is it that parents and teachers need to understand about working together? And why is this partnering so important to […]
Compass-Inspired
Do you describe your sons, daughters, or students as caring children? In today’s divided political climate, does it matter if children and teens find meaningful ways to connect with and care about others who are different from themselves? The importance of educating and raising caring children was brought to national […]
Empathy
When I was a teenager, we didn’t have a term for service-learning. There were opportunities to volunteer in our communities but not many people thought about the lifelong value of such experiences. As I reflect on my early volunteer experiences, I know for certain that my life was changed as […]
Empathy
Over 100 years ago, the great African American educator Booker T. Washington spoke about building resilience: “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed.” Research has since established […]
Resilience
Positive youth development is the practice of nurturing core internal strengths and abilities in children and teens. It is about providing opportunities for youth to believe in themselves and their abilities to influence their lives and the world around them. As families, schools, and communities, we share one goal. We want […]
Compass-Inspired
If you are wondering how to limit screen time for kids, it is likely your family is experiencing points of disagreement about technology use. You are not alone. How to limit screen time is a big topic of conversation in today’s households, particularly during the pandemic when online education hours have […]
Self-Awareness
Social emotional development is nurtured by teaching social skills early in life, creating shared social norms, and engaging students in cooperative learning. What helps children engage in learning? According to studies on the social nature of how we acquire knowledge, one answer is clear: Children engage in learning through their cooperative capacity […]
Sociability
