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Community Corner

Resilience -- The Greatest Gift You Can Give Your Child

My husband and I were pulling out of the high school parking lot when we overheard another driver calling out to her friend from behind the wheel: “Can anyone in our zipcode really get off this treadmill?” the woman asked.  Her question made perfect sense to us:  we had just left a viewing of The Race to Nowhere,” the 2010 documentary that since its release has challenged American parents  – particularly those of us living in affluent, high achieving zipcodes such as 60015 – to question current thinking about how we prepare our children for success.  It seems the endless parade from gymnastics and soccer, violin, piano, and dance lessons, volunteer activities, academic tutoring, and finally AP U.S. History and honors physics, sometimes leads not to entry to an ivy-league institution, but to entry to another sort of institution – one specializing in the psychological treatment of adolescents.  Now, Deerfield parents have a chance to hear from a bona fide parenting expert, the renowned Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg, about how parents and their kids can get off the “success at all costs” treadmill and onto another sort of path, one that leads to what Dr. Ginsburg calls “authentic success.”  Dr. Ginsburg, a key contributor to the Race to Nowhere, is the author of groundbreaking research showing that success is more dependent on resilience than on grade point average, high-stakes testing, or prestige of college.  Dr. Ginsburg will speak at two programs being held in the area sponsored by Deerfield Parent Network, along with The Family Institute at Northwestern University and the Stevenson Foundation’s Community Parent Network, both on Thursday, Nov. 7.  The first, Building Resilience: Raising Children who are Prepared to Thrive, will be from 9 – 11 a.m. at North Shore Unitarian Church, 2100 Half Day Road, Deerfield.  The second program, Authentic Success: Raising Adolescents to Thrive in a Challenging World, will be from 7- 9 p.m. at Stevenson High School, 1 Stevenson Drive, Lincolnshire.  For more information about these free programs, and to RSVP (required), please visit www.deerfieldparentnetwork.org

 

 

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