Letter from Jenny Morgan, FRC Program Coordinator

Dear Children's Center Families and Staff,

On Friday September 26th, some of the Children's Center staff had the privilege of attending the outstanding SOS (Stressed Out Students) Conference at Stanford, an event to bring the community together to address and counter problems associated with academic stress. The evening was facilitated by Denise Clark Pope, author of "Doing School": How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students and one of the founders of the SOS Intervention and Research Project at Stanford University. The speakers included authors David Elkind, Ken Ginsburg, and Madeline Levine as well as three students involved in the SOS program. The speakers are passionate about helping to improve health, school engagement, and academic integrity and all agreed that today's society is putting too much pressure on youth. Success is being measured too narrowly, by trophies, grades, test scores, and college admissions, and as a result many children are experiencing high levels of anxiety disorders, depression, poor physical health, and disengagement from learning. They also lack the skills they need to survive in the 21st century. We live in a high-pressure world that has unrealistic academic expectations for our children, even as young as preschool.

Dr. Ken Ginsburg's presentation was one of the highlights of the evening. He was adamant about redefining success for our children. He stated that success should not be measured by grades and school but instead by kindness, generosity, creativity, resilience, compassion, and innovation. He also believes that in order for our children to build resilience, they need to develop the 7 "C's":

1. Confidence
2. Competence (what you do well)
3. Connection (to someone who believes in you)
4. Character (knowing what is right/wrong)
5. Coping (need positive coping strategies)
6. Control (not feeling powerless over circumstances)
7. Contributing (to society and being surrounded by "thank you's")

He stated that today's students are being pushed too hard academically, are being paralyzed, and are not able to develop these characteristics. They do not have time to reflect and answer the question that all adolescents are trying to answer, "Who am I?"

The staff at the Children's Center supports the SOS project's mission of challenging today's definition of success and valuing different types of skills and abilities in children. On April 30th, the Children's Center has the privilege of having Denise Clark Pope come speak about this important topic. You will not want to miss this event! She will discuss how today's high-pressure culture can have unintentional but damaging effects on children and will address ways that your family can counter this fast-paced society. Even at such a young age, our preschool children face the pressures of today's culture and we need to help them build resilience and teach them how to thrive in our academic-driven society. Please mark your calendar for this important event and spread the word! We want the whole community to attend!

If you are interested in learning more about the SOS project (also called Challenge Success), visit the website www.challengesuccess.org or contact Jenny Morgan at jennifermorgan@laumc.org or 650-941-5411x119. We were able to order DVDs of the conference and will have them in the Family Resource Center library. We also have the following books from the speakers in our library:

• The Price of Privilege by Madeline Levine
• "Doing School": How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students by Denise Clark Pope
• The Power of Play by David Elkind
• The Hurried Child by David Elkind
• A Parent's Guide to Building Resilience in Children and Teens: Giving Your Child Roots and Wings by Kenneth Ginsburg
• In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honore
• Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting by Carl Honore

An article was written in the San Jose Mercury News this morning about the SOS project ("Fisher: Surviving High School"). For those that would like to read it, click on the following link: http://www.mercurynews.com/pattyfisher.

Thank you,
Jenny Morgan
Program Coordinator
The Family Resource Center

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