Attentive, caring, and invested parents support their children as they develop socially, academically, and emotionally into young adults. Yet, there is a difference between parent involvement and over-parenting, between helpfulness and intrusion, between giving students the parameters and the space they need in making important decisions for them. Helicopter parents exert control over their students’ every move. They exert control over their extracurricular activities, free time, and college and career choices, while incessantly checking grades online and championing and advocating for their child. As parents micromanage homework completion or combat teachers and coaches, they, inevitably, prevent their children from understanding how the world truly works or what it feels like to advocate for themselves. [Read More]

During spring break, students deserve a well-earned respite from homework and school responsibilities but the break will come and go and in time, students will be returning to the classroom. To best prepare them for a seamless transition back to school, academic skills such as reading and analyzing literature should be kept en pointe. Spring break is the ideal time for students to sit down to a great book they will enjoy reading while keeping their comprehension skills strong. [Read More]

“How do I encourage my child to engage in STEM activities?

In STEM Part I, we discussed STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) and the growing prominence of such disciplines as physics, software design, trigonometry, and computer programming, as well as its many educational and career opportunities. We would like to share with you fun, hands-on, and interactive activities that will encourage your child to get excited about STEM topics and its concepts through exploratory and engaging experiences. [Read More]

STEM education, or Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, integrates distinct fields of study into a cohesive curriculum. Disciplines that fall within this classification, including chemistry, physics, trigonometry, and software design, are also included in STEM programming. Presently, U.S. students fall behind their foreign cohorts in STEM education. Young Americans, in order to compete with their international counterparts in math and science, are encouraged to participate in this innovative educational initiative. U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has remarked, “Everyone has a stake in improving STEM education. Inspiring all our students to be capable in math and science will help them contribute in an increasingly technology-based economy, and will also help America prepare the next generation of STEM professionals—scientists, engineers, architects and technology professionals—to ensure our competiveness.” [Read More]

AltSchools are innovative and experimental private schools that emphasize a technology-driven approach toward education. This pioneering “micro-school” first launched in 2013 in San Francisco and has currently expanded to five outposts throughout California’s Bay Area. Three years ago, Max Ventilla, the founder of AltSchool and a former San Francisco based Google executive, was inspired to create a school where students were given more agency, could engage in exploratory and self-directed learning, and develop more self-awareness, which would enable them to make decisions and to develop a greater sense of “self-knowledge.” [Read more]