Life
Odds and ends
[For Lindsay] Many, many thanks for sharing your thoughts and insights on this blog. It was such an honor to host your debut. Your contributions fit in seamlessly and I loved getting a bit more of a peek into your interior life. Writing publicly can be scary, yes, but the possibility of human connection makes the tradeoff of exposure worth it. You are always welcome to blog here, though I hope you undertake a bigger project Read more…
Life
We Grow When We Tackle Challenges
Guest post by Lindsay Adamski: “The best way for a young person to build character is for him to attempt something where there is a real and serious possibility of failure.” (Paul Tough, p. 85). All of the reading that I have done these past few weeks has made me think of my own approach to risk and failure. In my personal and professional life I have a strong tendency to play it safe. I Read more…
Youth Development
The Hidden Power of Character
I first heard about Paul Tough’s book “How Children Succeed” on this podcast. I distinctly remember listening to the interview about this book while on a long bus ride and scribbling Paul Tough on a piece of paper to remember for later. It was another book that made me feel energized and excited about the potential in this work.
One point that struck me was when he described how character traits, such as grit, social intelligence, and self-control, can function as a type of safety net for students who don’t have much support from their family or their community. For students who are growing up in chaotic homes and the challenges associated with living in poverty, they have had to develop character traits that help them succeed and that they can fall back on when times are difficult.
Young people in foster care who make it to college are part of a small group. When you look at how many continue on to earn their degree, the number gets even smaller. There is obviously something that these students develop that has allowed them to go through the traumatic experience that is foster care and continue to strive to reach their goals.
Youth Development
The Divine Fire of Youth
As Ysette said, I am very excited to share a few posts while she is enjoying her vacation. I will get to Paul Tough later this week, but wanted to start out with a new release about foster care that has been getting plenty of attention.
I bought Cris Beam’s new book “To the End of June,” last Thursday, right before Labor Day weekend. I was intrigued by the book, partially because I felt like everyone was talking about it. At first I couldn’t quite tell if “everyone” might just include people like me who have google news alerts for New York City foster care. At this point, it seems the book’s publicity has reached well beyond the child welfare world. It is a pleasant change to hear people talking about foster care without an outrageous news story sparking the conversation.
Uncategorized
Guest blogger!
When the lovely Lindsay Adamski from New Yorkers For Children mentioned that she’d just finished a Paul Tough book that was on my reading list, I asked her if she wouldn’t mind blogging about it. Her answer was so immediate and so enthusiastic that I went ahead and invited her to babysit my blog while I went away for the next couple of weeks. I’m excited, she’s excited, I’m excited that she’s excited, etc. Make sure Read more…
Youth Development
This was intense for everyone in the room
Credit: Lindsay Adamski
The second retreat workshop, “Bank Robbery,” came wholesale from MacGregor’s book. It’s an activity designed to lay bare the communication styles of a group by requiring it to solve a crime. Everyone got two or three unique clues, which they had to share orally, without writing anything down or moving around. YAB, in other words, had to talk this one through. And they had 25 minutes to do so.
I had no idea if they were going to be able to figure out the mystery in time, though I informed them that the process would be illuminating either way. YAB spent the first ten minutes trying to arrive at a reasonable method for sharing their clues. They tried going around in a circle, then they attempted to jump around the group by linking seemingly related clues, and then they argued about whose clues were the most important. Lindsay, Amy, and I kept eyeing each other. I don’t think any of us were optimistic about YAB coming to a solution.
But then something happened about halfway through the process. (more…)
Youth Development
What Do You Bring to the Table?
The neurotic lesson planner in me always arrives to classes or workshops with a surplus of material because as a young teacher one of my biggest nightmares was to run out of things to do and—heaven forfend—have to wing it in the classroom. I went into the YAB retreat hoping to get through three team building activities. All of them were brand new, so I was a little nervous about inaugurating them and seeing how they would come together in practice. In the end we had to cut the 15-minute communication skills activity I’d planned and run a bit into the post-workshop hour. But Amy, Lindsay, and I were all expecting this retreat to be as much a learning experience for us as it would be for YAB, and we ended up being extremely pleased with the results of the team building activities.
We kicked the weekend off with “What Do You Bring to the Table,” a workshop idea I adapted from Mariam MacGregor’s Teambuilding with Teens. I designed this activity as a way for everyone to focus on their fellow YAB members’ strengths and also to learn why they are valued by their peers. Here is how we went about it: (more…)
Life
Love letters to YAB (and a confession)
I think I can come clean about a couple of things now that this retreat has come and gone: First is that I’ve wanted to go on a retreat with this group since I first started talking to Amy Chou about working with them last summer, so this past weekend was quite literally a dream come true. Second is that when Amy asked me if helping youth organizations draft mission statements and constitutions was part of the work I did, I kinda’ fibbed when I said yes. The truth was more along the lines of yes, it’s work I would like to do, but no, it’s not work I’ve ever done before. When she engaged my services I remember hanging up the phone and wondering what I had just gotten myself into.
Here I am, about a year later, so very lucky to have spent two days in Jersey with this lovely bunch:
In the order that they appear in my photo stream, I’d like to say a few words about each of these fine folks. (more…)
Life
It’s kind of like Hair Club for Men
Two friends now have mentioned they thought of me while reading Jill Lepore’s latest New Yorker piece. The news brings a wistful smile to my face because in my past life I wanted to grow up to be Jill Lepore. She is the rare scholar who builds bridges effortlessly between history and literature, between the past and the present, between the scholarly community and the reading public, and as evidenced in her last article, between the Read more…