Health & Social
Finding your place in college
We all arrive at college the same way — nervous, with a suitcase in hand and thousands of unanswered questions swirling around in our heads. Maybe back in high school, you knew everyone in your class. Even at larger schools, there’s often a sense of familiarity that’s comforting. Leaving behind your family’s warmth, the…
Read MoreRight Feelings, Right Time
The emotional life of a teenager is hard to navigate—for parents and teachers, too A review of The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents by Lisa Damour For latchkey kids like me growing up in the 1980s, teenage angst was a collective character trait. Popular songs like “Don’t You (Forget…
Read MoreHow Smartphones Are Rewiring Children: The Anxious Generation Review
[Editor’s note: Our archives contain several years of excellent articles, most of which remain relevant and important to today’s young people and the adults who work with them. This one is a “Director’s Choice” that we are reposting this week.] In Jonathan Haidt’s justly acclaimed new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of…
Read MorePrinceton needs to take academic breaks seriously
Every Princeton student knows the struggle of balancing academics with rest over breaks. Whether it be submitting an essay draft due at the start of fall break or finishing a presentation for the Monday following break, it isn’t uncommon for course deadlines to fall on one of the three formal breaks provided for students during the…
Read MoreAmerican kids are overmedicated
America is a lot of things: a global leader in innovation, an arms dealer, a centuries-old democracy, an abuser of human rights (sometimes). We are also a pharmacy, and if you are a toddler showing mild signs of hyperactivity, boy do we have the product for you. Meet the “focus pill.” Focus pills are stimulants intended to address attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder.…
Read MorePrinceton’s role in combating the drug crisis must start on campus
Drug addiction is a public health crisis in the United States. Total overdose deaths have increased in the United States over the last two decades across all demographic groups, with about 17 percent of Americans battling a substance use disorder in the past year. These alarming statistics show just how large of a problem drug dependency has become, but there’s…
Read More3 Helpful Scripts for Teachers with Anxious, Perfectionist Students
After “the craziest admissions season ever” last year, and as we head into what will surely be another highly competitive cycle, high school students are understandably increasingly anxious about their academics. I’ve witnessed this firsthand during my years teaching high school and middle school—seeing students vibrating from the stress and barely holding it together,…
Read MoreThere is no such thing as the perfect victim
The fallout of the film It Ends with Us has been nothing short of messy. Star Blake Lively faced widespread criticism after marketing the film, a story about domestic violence, as a hot pink, flower-power version of feminism. Her use of the press tour as a way to market her haircare line and her husband’s involvement…
Read MoreHealth & Well-Being: Reframing the Anxiety Conversation
[Editor’s note: Our archives contain several years of excellent articles, most of which remain relevant and important to today’s young people and the adults who work with them. This one is a “Director’s Choice” that we are reposting this week.] Like many schools across the country, University School of Milwaukee (WI) has seen…
Read MoreReality(?) TV
I have a guilty pleasure. I watch reality television. I know, I know…and the only thing I can say in my defense is that until recently, I almost exclusively limited myself to cooking shows with a strong preference for ones where the contestants were kind to one another (think early seasons of The Great…
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