Parents Scene
Reality(?) 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…
Read More“No Excuse, Sir”
This is an address presented to high school students and their parents and teachers. Each time I conduct one of these awards ceremonies, I spend some time thinking about what it is that separates those who are successful students from those who are not. What characteristics do the successful possess? Though it will probably…
Read MoreThe Hollowdays
“We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men / Leaning together / Headpiece filled with straw.” – T.S. Eliot (“The Hollow Men,” 1925) It is already Christmas at Starbucks. They may call it the “holidays,” of course, just one more way of extracting all the caffeine (i.e., authenticity) and profundity…
Read MorePathologizing men is unproductive. We should invest in better men-focused spaces.
In her Oct. 22 op-ed, Julianna Lee ’25 argued that male-only spaces could better Princeton’s campus by building “encouragement, empowerment, and friendship for men.” Columnist Ava Johnson ’27 responded on Nov. 4, contending that male-only spaces fail to address men’s problems and “[run] the risk of breeding misogyny and bullying.” These opinions come at a time when…
Read MoreBanning books is detrimental to intellectual growth
[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.] Back in February, The Daily Princetonian’s podcast Daybreak interviewed English Professor Anne Cheng on the…
Read More14 Essential Conversations with Tweens: An Interview with Michelle Icard
Last month, I shared an interview I did with Michelle Icard on her new book, Eight Setbacks That Can Make a Child a Success. It occurred to me after writing that piece that Ms. Icard’s previous book on how to have difficult conversations with tweens would be a helpful resource to parents supporting their children through setbacks…
Read MoreLearning and the Brain: Bid the geldings be fruitful?
“And all the time – such is the tragicomedy of our situation – we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more ‘drive,’ or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or ‘creativity.’ In a sort of…
Read MoreLearning and the Brain: On wind and roots
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” – Frederich Nietzsche During the early 1990s, an experiment was taking place in New Mexico called Biosphere 2. It was (and still is) a closed ecological system — air, food, community, everything had to be generated in this biodome. Though now…
Read MoreHome Is The Training Ground For Life: A Conversation With Parenting Expert Sheri Glucoft Wong
[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.] Do you wish you had fewer conflicts with your children involving screen time, homework,…
Read MoreThe rotten seed of American individualism
The rotten seed of American individualism has grown into a mighty tree, spreading its branches and curling through the hearts of American citizens. It whispers in our ears lies of self-sufficiency and the lonesome American Dream, promising freedom but leaving cracks in the Earth and sowing division. It has wrapped its tendrils tightly around our everyday lives, taking root in the…
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