Youth Advocacy
Advocating for young people and increasing their mental well-being in a time of war without rules and reactive leadership.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 42 (180 total reports)
11.10.2023-10.17.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advocating for young people and increasing their mental well-being in a time of war without rules and reactive leadership.
Best Links of The Week
17.10.2023
The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/soul-civility-timeless-principles-heal-society-bookbite/45588/
This book review was very exciting for me. In our outreaches (Communities of Trust) to schools and group homes, we stressed the modeling and teaching of a principle we called “Intentional Courtesy”; going out of your way to be intentionally courteous to the “lonely, the sad, and even the mad.” These fringe people—usually with the least attention—have the most power. The least engaged in any relationship (or community) always have the most power, because they have nothing to lose by disrupting the status quo. A lesson that the world is being tragically reminded of again in Israel, where successive governments have never sustainably sought to engage their minority population, but instead, consistently given them less true agency over their lives. This article reawakens that concept and prescribes the intentionality of civility—of ‘going out of your way’ to engage. Who is the least engaged in your relationships? In your facilities? In your community? Do you have a strategy to engage them?
16.10.2023
The World Is Succumbing To Reactive Thinking
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brycehoffman/2023/10/15/the-world-is-succumbing-to-reactive-thinking/
This article stresses the difference between reactive thinking and thoughtful, responsive thinking. The author, Bryce Hoffman, extols the virtues of Daniel Kahneman’s book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow.” Reactive thinking (what Kahneman calls “System 1” thinking, is fast, autonomic, with little or no conscious effort. System 2 Thinking—Slow Thinking—is deliberate and requires increased conscious effort. Each has its place and time, but our world is in desperate need of System 2 thinking. Most of the problems we currently face; injustice, war, authoritarianism, climate change, require long-term planning, not knee-jerk reactions based on revenge, hatred, and prejudice.
15.10.2023
How to Increase Your "Neuroplasticity," in 7 Key Steps
https://www.insidehook.com/wellness/increase-neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to be flexible. Like Emotional Intelligence, it is a learned behavior and we can never stop growing it. This article does a good job explaining the habits we can develop in order to expand our neural flexibility.
14.10.2023
Artist beautifully illustrates the transformative power of turning toward fear
This artist obviously knows a great deal about “turning towards” your fear. When words fail, art can often succeed; in its visual or musical form. Think of the people in your care and who could be touched by these beautiful renditions of dealing with adversity and pain. Perhaps you could order prints for your home, school, or facility.
13.10.2023
There Are No Rules
https://apple.news/AZJ61Y4wdRyutcgvMOztGDQ
The Geneva Convention was established as a baseline in how we will behave towards each other—even in war—especially in war. The Geneva Protocols were adapted post WWII as laws about how we would treat civilians and military personnel in the event of war. It would seem that recent aggressions look at these protocols and use them, not to guide humane treatment and basic human rights, but as a starting point for atrocities. One of the primary issues has been a lack of consequences for breaking these international laws. It makes me wonder if laws without consequences are worse than no laws at all.
12.10.2023
Doctrine of Discovery
https://www.worldhistory.org/Doctrine_of_Discovery/
This is the doctrine, developed by the Catholic Church under duress form Spain and Portugal, that authorized the colonization of the world and the right of Colonial (White) Supremacy around the globe. This Doctrine underpinned the widespread use of slavery and genocide. Therefore, it is a very important aspect of history we must learn and teach.
11.10.2023
No, Book Bans Are Never ‘Reasonable’ (Opinion)
https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-no-book-bans-are-never-reasonable/2023/10
The people I think that need to read this commentary the most, will probably never see it. I do hope, however, that you can help me spread it about on your social media and in your conversations. The authors, Kwesi Rollings and Jasmine Bolton, are extremely articulate and this is well-worth the minute that it will take for you to read.
This Week’s Links
17.10.2023
The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/soul-civility-timeless-principles-heal-society-bookbite/45588/
Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Outcomes
How to master antifragility for a happier life
https://bigthink.com/the-well/antifragility-for-a-happier-life/
From Setback to Success — 4 Ways to Turn Your Struggles into Resilience
https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/4-strategies-to-turn-hard-times-into-resilience/462847
12 Common Habits of People With High Emotional Intelligence, According to Psychologists
https://parade.com/living/high-emotional-intelligence-habits-according-to-psychologists
U.S. to settle lawsuit with migrant families separated under Trump, offering benefits and limiting separations
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/family-separation-lawsuit-settlement-agreement/
Massive voter turnout in Poland appears to reject right-wing party; Halts authoritarian drift
16.10.2023
The World Is Succumbing To Reactive Thinking
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brycehoffman/2023/10/15/the-world-is-succumbing-to-reactive-thinking/
School suspensions entrench disadvantage. What are the alternatives and how have they worked overseas?
The 10 Personality Traits Of People Who Actually Think For Themselves — And Don’t Fall For Misinformation
https://www.yourtango.com/entertainment/personality-traits-people-who-dont-fall-misinformation
Harvard-trained researcher: The most successful kids are 'healthy strivers'
https://apple.news/Ac_nFtSUsTzKHLfDHoPbLdg
Self-Compassion Is a Mental Health Wonder Drug That Can Help You Stop Procrastinating, Save Money, and Be More Successful
This science-backed model can help you communicate with every personality type
15.10.2023
How to Increase Your "Neuroplasticity," in 7 Key Steps
https://www.insidehook.com/wellness/increase-neuroplasticity
Man abandoned by his dad at 14 makes videos teaching children what dads normally teach kids
We Allowed This To Happen? Black Texas Teen Gets Severe Punishment Over Dreadlocks
https://www.theroot.com/how-is-this-possible-black-texas-teen-gets-severe-puni-1850925784
Interpreting Autism
https://leader.pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/leader.FTR2.21042016.50
Getting stuck in mud as a kid helped make me a confident adult. Kids today need space to fail too.
These Are The Most Educated States Ranked
https://vacation1st.com/post/376/the-most-educated-states-ranked
Changing nature of Covid: Is it just a regular winter bug now?
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-66994137
The Employee Hierarchy Of Needs: Building A Fulfilling Workplace
14.10.2023
Artist beautifully illustrates the transformative power of turning toward fear
We Don’t Talk About Leonard: The Man Behind the Right’s Supreme Court Supermajority
https://www.propublica.org/article/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-leo-supreme-court-supermajority
Harvard psychologist: 7 things passive-aggressive people always say and do—and the No. 1 way to respond
https://apple.news/AK_aunBZsRXOfFI2ZHNOT_g
Exploring the Lesser-Known Experiences and Symptoms of ADHD
https://apple.news/APheJ6dgkTFWkv9M3ApoeKw
13.10.2023
There Are No Rules
https://apple.news/AZJ61Y4wdRyutcgvMOztGDQ
They’re Coming for Birth Control
https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/12/alliance-defending-freedom-birth-control-trans-gay/
What Skills Do Students Need in the AI Age? Shelley Gates Offers a Roadmap
https://www.cryptopolitan.com/skills-students-need-ai-age-shelley-gates/
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
Black history teacher takes Florida education standards complaints to the UN
Too Many Responsibilities? This Simple Life Hack Will Help You Reclaim Your Life
https://www.entrepreneur.com/living/too-many-responsibilities-this-simple-life-hack-will-help/462998
12.10.2023
Doctrine of Discovery
https://www.worldhistory.org/Doctrine_of_Discovery/
Why climate change is a national security risk
https://phys.org/news/2023-10-climate-national.html
6 practical psychology tricks to boost your mind for positive thinking
The Lifestyle Change That Simulates "Falling in Love"
https://www.insidehook.com/article/health-and-fitness/commuting-foot-mental-health
Glittering promises laced with lies: A chilling glimpse into the so-called “ex-gay” industry
Black student suspended over hairstyle will be sent to disciplinary education program
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/darryl-george-dreadlocks-black-student-suspended-texas-crown-act/
The 4-Step Plan That Keeps People Calm In Their Angriest Moments
https://www.yourtango.com/self/how-pepole-stay-calm-angry-moments
11.10.2023
No, Book Bans Are Never ‘Reasonable’ (Opinion)
https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-no-book-bans-are-never-reasonable/2023/10
Why more school counselors and psychologists alone won't solve America's mental health crisis among students
The 8 Best Mobile Apps for Mental Wellness Courses
https://www.makeuseof.com/best-mobile-apps-mental-wellness-courses/
The Reckoning
https://apple.news/AXthNNox3TQWoHQKObz8Y5A
3 practices for a life of wisdom
https://www.ted.com/talks/krista_tippett_3_practices_for_a_life_of_wisdom
The Power of Forgiveness
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-addiction-connection/202310/the-power-of-forgiveness
We Don’t Talk About Leonard: The Man Behind the Right’s Supreme Court Supermajority
https://www.propublica.org/article/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-leo-supreme-court-supermajority
How to Become a More Positive Thinker
Youth Advocacy
Advocating for young people and increasing their mental well-being in a time of rising child poverty and a leadership vacuum.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 41 (179 total reports)
04.10.2023-10.10.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advocating for young people and increasing their mental well-being in a time of rising child poverty and a leadership vacuum.
Best Links of The Week
10.10.2023
Good Question: What’s Behind the Spike in Child Poverty in the U.S.?
https://apple.news/AgecFh8HzT92OW4gF6hGdDQ
While the very, very rich have been amassing gross amounts of lucre that couldn’t possibly be spent in their lifetimes (unless buying Twitter or flying to space in search of eternal “being-ness”), governments worldwide have been starving children. Policies created by power-hungry politicians, like Joe Manchin, have left children with their education and basic needs unfunded. The leaders who have taken over our institutions are not only amoral, but also unable to function in their own governance. The minority that currently controls the financial, political, media, and judicial systems are doing everything possible to prevent democracy from growing and the only solution is a tidal wave of voters in future elections. More power to GOP-hated leaders like Taylor Swift and Travis Kelcie and their drive to encourage voters to register and make their voices heard.
09.10.2023
A Break Down of Thought Disorders and Signs of Recognition
This is an adept layperson’s guide to thought disorders. Please don’t use it for self-diagnosis or diagnosing others, leave that to professionals. But it is a good place to start if you recognize mental health issues in yourself or those around you.
08.10.2023
The No. 1 key to a happier, longer life—'that younger people don't' know, according to the oldest and 'wisest' Americans
https://apple.news/AiB8ukJ6RTW6aipBsYw2LyQ
I began reading this article with a sense of irony, but found I really enjoyed the concepts it was discussing. Since then, I have been sharing it with a number of close friends, which is why I want to share it with you and hope you will share it with others.
07.10.2023
Eight Ways to Banish Misery
https://apple.news/AS-BRXi5cRsuRSUAm95xLkw
This article has a wealth of information based upon the insights of Nobel Prize winner, Betrand Russell. There is a lot to uncover here and my favorite author (Arthur C. Brooks) from my favorite reading source, “The Atlantic,” is well-suited to peel back the layers of Russell’s insights in an understandable—and somewhat brief—manner.
06.10.2023
The Red Pill of Humility
https://apple.news/AMNGzDubKTnmJuNwI-c5Fuw
This second Arthur C. Brooks article from The Atlantic is based upon the Matrix concept of the Red Pill and the Blue Pill, Neo’s choice of reality or blissful unconsciousness.
05.10.2023
Adults have a lot to say about book bans — but what about kids?
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/04/1203277224/kids-on-book-bans-during-banned-books-week
Thank you, NPR, for taking the time to view the adult idiocy of book banning from a child’s perspective, after all, they are the long-term victims here. When children do not have access to alternative and diverse opinions, they become closed-minded fundamentalists. But then again, what other kind of people do MAGA followers and Conservative Evangelicals desire in their dystopian view of the future?
04.10.2023
Emotional Intelligence: The Skill That May Be More Important Than IQ in Achieving Success
https://www.rd.com/article/what-is-emotional-intelligence/
For decades, research has shown us that people who have the most well-being and influential lives are people who have had assistance developing their Emotional Quotient. Even with the most rigorous standards of education, IQ is nearly impossible to raise by even a few points. Alternatively, increasing EQ is almost limitless.
This Week’s Links
10.10.2023
Good Question: What’s Behind the Spike in Child Poverty in the U.S.?
https://apple.news/AgecFh8HzT92OW4gF6hGdDQ
A surprisingly radical proposal: Make people happier — not just wealthier and healthier
https://apple.news/AmOCVBgQPR7qAFT_MX2z89w
How to Love Every Day
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cravings/202310/how-to-love-every-day
Moms for Liberty meets its match: Parents in this swing suburban district are fighting back
Scholastic Book Fair allegedly bows to censorship
https://boingboing.net/2023/10/09/scholastic-book-fair-allegedly-bows-to-censorship.html
5 Small Things You Can Do Every Day To Make A Big Difference To Someone Else
https://www.yourtango.com/self/small-things-can-do-every-day-make-big-difference-someone-else
14 simple things you can do today to boost your mental health
https://www.stylist.co.uk/health/mental-health/simple-steps-boost-mental-health/829191
The ecological and evolutionary consequences of systemic racism in urban environments
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aay4497
09.10.2023
A Break Down of Thought Disorders and Signs of Recognition
12 Phrases To Use When Someone Is 'Talking Down' to You—and Why They Work, According to Psychologists
https://parade.com/living/how-to-respond-to-condescending-people-according-to-psychologists
10 Ways To Stand Your Ground With A Narcissist
https://www.yourtango.com/self/ways-stand-ground-with-narcissist
The right is getting weirder about sex
https://www.salon.com/2023/10/09/the-right-is-getting-weirder-about/
In a new picture book for kids, a lot of random stuff gets banned
08.10.2023
The No. 1 key to a happier, longer life—'that younger people don't' know, according to the oldest and 'wisest' Americans
https://apple.news/AiB8ukJ6RTW6aipBsYw2LyQ
A Break Down of Thought Disorders and Signs of Recognition
Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, and the Calls to Save Democracy from Trump
https://themessenger.com/opinion/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-nfl-ratings-social-media-trump
11 Things an Emotionally Intelligent Boss Says
Right-Wing PragerU Material Can Now Appear in Montana Textbooks
https://www.thedailybeast.com/right-wing-prageru-material-can-now-appear-in-montana-textbooks
07.10.2023
Eight Ways to Banish Misery
https://apple.news/AS-BRXi5cRsuRSUAm95xLkw
30 Pics About Billionaires And The Wealth Gap That Show Just How Infuriatingly Unfair The World Is
https://www.boredpanda.com/facts-about-billionaires-and-the-wealth-gap/
‘The endgame of election denial is that we shouldn't have elections’: Authoritarianism expert
Pope Francis delivers a message of despair in ‘Laudate Deum.’ We ignore it at our peril.
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/10/06/laudate-deum-francis-warning-246228
Going Though A Hard Time? Here Are 8 Practices For Healing, From An Intuitive
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/8-healing-practices-for-hard-times-from-an-intuitive
06.10.2023
The Red Pill of Humility
https://apple.news/AMNGzDubKTnmJuNwI-c5Fuw
Nothing defines America’s social divide like a college education
https://apple.news/AXAjFzA2EQXqpfD96pg5dNw
Seeing Others: How Recognition Works and How it Can Help us Heal a Divided World
New Report: School Shootings Spawned ‘Digital Dystopia’ of Student Surveillance
Students fight to defend school against takeover by fringe religious ideology
There Are 8 Types of Intelligence: Which One Is Your Strength?
https://www.rd.com/article/types-of-intelligence/
4 myths holding women back at work: ‘Our data is super, super clear,’ says Sheryl Sandberg
05.10.2023
Adults have a lot to say about book bans — but what about kids?
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/04/1203277224/kids-on-book-bans-during-banned-books-week
Banned Books Week serves as a reminder about GOP censorship
What Work Will Look Like in the Future, According to 5 New Books
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/work-will-look-like-future-according-5-new-books/45342/
11 Most Banned Books by Schools So Far This Year
https://www.advocate.com/books/11-most-banned-books
Volodymyr Zelenskyy Has a Message for Americans About Democracy
Know Your (Queer) History
https://apple.news/A841ELkLWRzK7IelBWpvpOA
The No. 1 phrase people who are good at small talk always use, says Stanford public speaking expert
15 Worst Cities for Women To Live and Work
https://wealthofgeeks.com/worst-cities-for-women-to-live-and-work/
04.10.2023
Emotional Intelligence: The Skill That May Be More Important Than IQ in Achieving Success
https://www.rd.com/article/what-is-emotional-intelligence/
Pete Buttigieg slams Donald Trump for calling for general’s execution
Youth Advocacy
Advocating for young people and increasing their mental well-being in a time requiring a revolution of biocentrism.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 40 (178 total reports)
27.09.2023-03.10.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advocating for young people and increasing their mental well-being in a time requiring a revolution of biocentrism.
Best Links of The Week
03.10.2023
Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/right-kind-wrong-science-failing-well-bookbite/45323/
Perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give to our children is the ability to fail well. Without failing well, there can be NO growth. My wife and I recently moved to Mexico (full time for three years now), we both have studied Duolingo fastidiously, it is a fantastic program for conversational Spanish. However, recently we both (along with a neighbor) just started teaching English to local residents who speak almost none of that language. I must say that in the last couple of weeks, I’ve made more advances in my speaking than in months of online study. Neither of us are advanced Spanish speakers, all of us (students and teachers) are failing (hopefully failing well). We cannot grow if we are too afraid to look a little silly. Where can you go to fail well this week? How can you model that behavior to the children in your care?
02.10.2023
The Dawn of a Mindful Universe: A Manifesto for Humanity's Future
This book presents a manifesto for our need to rethink how we treat the earth and each other. What the author refers to as a revolution towards biocentrism and the recognition that there is only one tribe on earth; and it’s not just a Sapien tribe. Marcelo Gleiser’s insights are both challenging and uplifting. If you’ve been wondering about a path forward for or global community, this is a sanguine blueprint.
01.10.2023
Trailblazing Women: The 15 Beloved Female Icons of American Culture
https://wealthofgeeks.com/beloved-female-icons-in-american-culture/
Many of the choices in this article surprised me, in particular, their choice of No. 1. What becomes clearer to me, a healthy future will not be found by continuing the misogynistic patterns of leadership we have exhibited in most cultures throughout the history of humanity.
30.09.2023
The Dysfunctional Superpower
https://reader.foreignaffairs.com/2023/09/29/the-dysfunctional-superpower/content.html
Warning: this is an in-depth article that took me a while to both read and digest, it was worth every minute, especially as I watched the circus in the Republican “Led” House and the trial of an unhinged fraud unfolding in New York. If any of that concerns you, take time for this article. I’ve never been a big fan of Robert Gates, but I went in open-minded and gained from his insights on how the US currently looks to the rest of the world.
29.09.2023
US jail practices are racist and an 'affront to human dignity,' UN experts say
Thank you to the UN for finally publishing what many of us who have worked in the corrections system for decades have known and experienced. In a recent conversation with an inmate, we both agreed that the only good thing about more politicians being locked up is that it will hasten prison reforms. Sadly, similar to the Viet Nam war, policies don’t change until it affects those who make them. When children of the middle class started being sent to the Asian country, people began demanding change from their politicians. I don’t think change in corrections will begin because leaders are shamed by the UN, but I do think it will change, as these same leaders find themselves behind bars.
28.09.2023
In U.S. first, California governor signs law taxing guns, ammunition to fund safety programs
https://apple.news/Aede1vynSShmjweDbYtLLXQ
I’m very inspired by the controversial changes that Governor Gavin Newsom is bringing to his State. Finally, someone is addressing poverty, homelessness, and gun issues in a manner beyond “thoughts and prayers.” I think it is a hilarious juxtaposition to use gun and ammunition revenues to support school safety. Goes to the heart of the matter.
27.09.2023
'Fossil fuel age' has failed says UN Secretary-General, and other nature and climate stories you need to read this week
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/09/fossil-fuel-climate-and-nature-read-this-week/
Who has the most to lose by continuing the insane use of fossil fuels? Who is fighting the hardest to prevent change? The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, was bold in his statements at the Opening Ceremony of the World Leaders Summit at COP27. “Ben Fieto,” Señor (Portuguese for “well done”).
This Week’s Links
03.10.2023
Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/right-kind-wrong-science-failing-well-bookbite/45323/
The truth about human population decline
https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_d_sciubba_the_truth_about_human_population_decline
Donald Trump Says Shoplifters Should be Shot, but Does He Know Who Most Shoplifters Are?
https://www.theroot.com/donald-trump-says-shoplifters-should-be-shot-but-that-1850893179
Exclusive: John Kelly goes on the record to confirm several disturbing stories about Trump
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/02/politics/john-kelly-donald-trump-us-service-members-veterans
School culture wars push students to form banned book clubs, anti-censorship groups
https://abcnews.go.com/US/school-culture-wars-push-students-form-banned-book/story?id=103377259
The Best Way to Get Your Kids to Actually Listen
https://lifehacker.com/the-best-way-to-get-your-kids-to-actually-listen-1850892285
02.10.2023
The Dawn of a Mindful Universe: A Manifesto for Humanity's Future
Lessons We Can Learn From Black Teachers During The Civil Rights Era
https://newsone.com/4739173/lessons-from-black-teachers-during-the-civil-rights-era/
The 9 Most Important Decisions A Person Can Make In Their Life, According To Experts
https://www.yourtango.com/self/most-important-decisions-person-can-make-in-life-according-to-experts
Ask a life coach: How can I cut back on drinking?
01.10.2023
Trailblazing Women: The 15 Beloved Female Icons of American Culture
https://wealthofgeeks.com/beloved-female-icons-in-american-culture/
These Are The Best Masks To Protect You From Anti-Maskers
More than 1,300 children and teens have been killed by guns so far this year. Here’s why we’re telling you some of their stories.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/01/us/gun-deaths-project-why-gdpr/
18 of the Most Commonly Banned Books in America Right Now
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/g45303215/banned-books/
16 Helpful Tips to Relieve Stress and Ease Worries, According to Experts
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/a45325159/tips-to-relieve-stress-ease-worries/
Congress fails to avert childcare cliff crisis
Black history 'Underground Railroad' forms across US after DeSantis, others ban books
How to Understand The Art of Accountability
https://www.inc.com/david-finkel/how-to-understand-art-of-accountability.html
7 New York Times Bestsellers on Finding True Happiness
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/7-new-york-times-bestsellers-finding-true-happiness/45288/
30.09.2023
The Dysfunctional Superpower
https://reader.foreignaffairs.com/2023/09/29/the-dysfunctional-superpower/content.html
Opinion: The West Must Realize It Is Already at War With Russia
https://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/22060
The United Nations Calls Out "Racist" US Criminal Justice System
https://www.theroot.com/the-united-nations-calls-out-racist-us-criminal-justi-1850887371
Jeffrey Goldberg: Trump has normalized treating Americans like enemies
Why You Need To Let Go Of The Things You Cannot Change
https://www.yourtango.com/self/why-you-need-let-go-things-you-cannot-change
Psychologist: This 2,000-year-old Korean approach to relationships can help you live a happier life
29.09.2023
US jail practices are racist and an 'affront to human dignity,' UN experts say
What closes and what keeps running in a federal government shutdown
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/29/1202474725/2023-government-shutdown-update
New California law raises minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour, among nation's highest
How Some Americans Distort The Racist History Of The U.S. Into An Uplifting – And Sanitized – Moral Lesson
https://newsone.com/4734031/teaching-slavery-racist-us-history/
Florida and Kentucky are losing educators to extreme anti-LGBTQ+ laws
https://19thnews.org/2023/09/florida-kentucky-anti-lgbtq-laws-teachers-education/
Core tenet of Christian nationalism, zero understanding of history
28.09.2023
In U.S. first, California governor signs law taxing guns, ammunition to fund safety programs
https://apple.news/Aede1vynSShmjweDbYtLLXQ
Why Republicans' War Against Taylor Swift Could Backfire
https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-war-against-taylor-swift-could-backfire-1829936
Military families brace for loss of paycheck, services under a government shutdown
I Teach Educators How to Change Their Minds. Here’s How (Opinion)
14 Phrases to Instantly Lift Someone’s Spirits, According to a Therapist
https://parade.com/living/phrases-to-lift-someones-spirits-according-to-a-therapist
27.09.2023
'Fossil fuel age' has failed says UN Secretary-General, and other nature and climate stories you need to read this week
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/09/fossil-fuel-climate-and-nature-read-this-week/
The 3 Small Habits That Increase Your ‘Relational Intelligence,' According To Experts
https://www.yourtango.com/self/small-habits-increase-relational-intelligence-according-experts
Opinion | The New Moral Order Is Already Crumbling
Youth Advocacy
Advocating for young people and increasing their mental well-being in a time of polycrisis and permacrisis.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 39 (177 total reports)
20.09.2023-26.09.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advocating for young people and increasing their mental well-being in a time of polycrisis and permacrisis.
Best Links of The Week
26.09.2023
Why the West’s elites invented a permacrisis
https://unherd.com/2023/09/why-the-wests-elites-invented-a-permacrisis/
Whenever there is a crisis, there is someone benefitting from it. Who benefits from keeping us in permanent crisis (permacrisis) and constantly dealing with multiple crises (polycrisis) simultaneously? Those pursuing the Biden Impeachment benefit from lowering the weightiness of the impeachment process and those who are forcing a government shutdown benefit from a economy in disarray. This article looks behind the terms polycrisis and permacrisis to the one’s who benefit the most from these crises. It’s not just the politicians, but the elites who fund their chaos.
25.09.2023
California's controversial CARE Court brings mental health care into the courtroom
Governor Gavin Newsom of California has some unique and brave ideas for dealing with mental health, housing, and crime in his state. I really love the concept of a CARE Court and have seen similar policies benefit those who are dealing with mental illness as well as the affected relatives. I hope his policies will be heralded as an example and replicated, once efficacy is proven. In the meantime, what IS proven is that the current court system is NOT working.
24.09.2023
Are we the last generation -- or the first sustainable one?
This is exactly the hopeful message we all need at this time. I love TED talks and this one is stellar. Give this young lady a listen and feel the determined optimism in her ideas.
23.09.2023
Who does a government shutdown affect most? Here's what happens to the agencies Americans rely on.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-shutdown-federal-agencies-affected/
A government shutdown will be painful for many middle-class people and especially the poor. Alternatively, if we follow the money and power, who will it benefit? Perhaps the best way to end shutdowns is to tie congressional perks and salaries to the shutdown. If the government shuts down, they should not be paid, they should certainly not be allowed vacation and time off during a shotdown. The only way this is going to happen is if these people are voted out of office. The upcoming election is perhaps the most critical in the history of US Democracy. In fact, it is a vote on whether democracy will continue to exist in the United States or if it will become an authoritarian state ruled by a facist.
23.09.2023
Biden: Kids' safety from gun violence "is on the ballot"
https://www.axios.com/2023/09/22/biden-gun-violence-prevention-democrats
As you probably know, gun deaths are the primary cause of death for children in the United States. Congress has been impotent in addressing this problem and it is indeed on the ballot on November 5, 2024. Let’s end the tyranny of the NRA and gun lobbyists. Let’s vote out the “thoughts and prayers” congress and elect those who will actually pledge do to prioritize this issue. Lives—children’s lives—are at stake.
22.09.2023
A pediatrician’s view on child poverty rates
The lasting psychological and physiological damages of poverty is intergenerational. The repeal of the child tax credit (largely led by Senator Joe Manchin from West Virgina) has driven many families—and children below the poverty line. This dooms many children to a lifetime of economic hardship and will do more to exacerbate the welfare state than any other policy implemented in the last decade. Examine the far reaching damage of child poverty in this article by a respected pediatrician.
21.09.2023
How to stop your amygdala from hijacking your emotions
https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/amygdala-hijacking-emotions/
The only way to live a healthy life is to mitigate the impulses of the amygdala and the only way we can learn this process is if a mentally healthy adult co-regulates those impulses with us. Examine how the amygdala can hijack our happiness and well-being and what can be done about it.
20.09.2023
UN chief sees a world ‘becoming unhinged’ and a completely absent leadership: ‘we seem incapable of coming together to respond’
António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres GCC GCL is a Portuguese politician and diplomat. Since 2017, he has served as secretary-general of the United Nations, the ninth person to hold this title. A member of the Portuguese Socialist Party, Guterres served as prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002. Guterres is well-placed to identify the permacrisis state of our world and he is unequivocally sounding warning bells. Read the text of his address to the 78th session of the United Nations.
This Week’s Links
26.09.2023
Why the West’s elites invented a permacrisis
https://unherd.com/2023/09/why-the-wests-elites-invented-a-permacrisis/
Take risks, embrace failure and be comfortable with uncertainty: 3 activities to help your child think like an artist
Student protest against their school board’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies goes global
https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/26/students-protest-anti-lgbtq-policies/
50 Absurd Real-Life Examples Of Cognitive Dissonance That People Just Cannot Forget
https://www.boredpanda.com/worst-cognitive-dissonance-experiences/
25.09.2023
California's controversial CARE Court brings mental health care into the courtroom
In his retirement, Rupert Murdoch leaves behind a wake of destruction
Harvard psychologists have been studying what it takes to raise 'good' kids. Here are 6 tips.
Students protest Virginia schools anti-trans policies: ‘We will be bullied and dead-named’
https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/25/student-protest-virginia-anti-trans-policies/
24.09.2023
Are we the last generation -- or the first sustainable one?
The 10 Best Mental Health Websites for Young People
https://www.makeuseof.com/best-mental-health-websites-young-people/
7 Books to Help You Press Reset on Your Mindset
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/7-books-help-press-reset-mindset/45072/
Talking to yourself in a loving way could change your life – here’s how to start
https://www.stylist.co.uk/health/mental-health/one-good-thing-speak-to-yourself-with-love/823969
Narcissistic demagogues will devour this country if we don’t educate ourselves & vote
Freedom Fighter Maria Ressa on How Disinformation Degrades Democracy
Protestors in Florida read from banned books, defying the state's education policies
23.09.2023
Biden: Kids' safety from gun violence "is on the ballot"
https://www.axios.com/2023/09/22/biden-gun-violence-prevention-democrats
The Hidden (And Most Dangerous) Symptom Of Anxiety
https://www.yourtango.com/health-wellness/hidden-most-dangerous-symptom-anxiety
How to Raise Antifragile Kids
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a45246320/raise-antifragile-kids/
Who does a government shutdown affect most? Here's what happens to the agencies Americans rely on.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-shutdown-federal-agencies-affected/
As the World's Problems Grow More Challenging, the Head of the United Nations Gets Bleaker
22.09.2023
A pediatrician’s view on child poverty rates
The Most Supportive Question You Can Ask Someone Who Is Sad, Struggling Or Broken-Hearted
https://www.yourtango.com/heartbreak/simple-question-ask-someone-sad-heartbroken-struggling
Israeli artist who adapted Anne Frank's diary into a graphic novel is alarmed that Texas teacher was removed for using it
21/90 Rule: The Ultimate Guide to Building Habits That Last
https://yourstory.com/2023/09/21-90-rule-guide-building-lasting-habits
Eat your broccoli and don’t listen to Andrew Tate’: fighting misogyny is now part of everyday parenting
https://apple.news/Au-PUzz6oSAehUgpc9sHpQg
The 2000s lad culture that Russell Brand epitomised wasn’t funny then. It looks even more hideous with hindsight
https://apple.news/ATc4eAw36Qly27oVoSjxMMg
DeSantis Administration Recommends Against Boosters, Right as Florida Tops Nation for COVID Hospitalizations
21.09.2023
How to stop your amygdala from hijacking your emotions
https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/amygdala-hijacking-emotions/
Want to join the American Climate Corps? Here's what we know so far.
https://grist.org/politics/want-to-join-the-american-climate-corps-what-we-know-so-far/
UN chief warns ‘humanity has opened the gates to hell’ as he convenes world leaders for climate summit
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/20/world/unga-climate-summit-guterres/
40 Bedtime Questions to Ask Your Kid Before You Say “Good Night”
https://theeverymom.com/bedtime-questions-to-ask-your-kids/
There have been attempts to censor more than 1,900 library book titles so far in 2023
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200647985/book-bans-libraries-schools
Study of incarcerated teens identifies two factors that explain the link between childhood maltreatment and callous-unemotional traits
'No longer' a foreign threat: New bipartisan group calls out MAGA movement as 'fascist'
DeSantis Says Humanity ‘Safer Than Ever’ From Climate Change… Weeks After Major Hurricane
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ron-desantis-climate-change-safer_n_650bb87ae4b0e190a3a7e445
20.09.2023
UN chief sees a world ‘becoming unhinged’ and a completely absent leadership: ‘we seem incapable of coming together to respond’
Most Americans Want Politicians to Stop Attacking Trans People
https://www.them.us/story/survey-results-americans-trans-rights
“Happiest Man In The World” Shares 9 Incredibly Simple Yet Effective Tips To Become Happier
https://www.boredpanda.com/tips-how-become-happier-matthieu-ricard/
Youth Advocacy
Advocating for young people and increasing their mental well-being in a world in crisis.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 38 (176 total reports)
13.09.2023-19.09.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advocating for young people and increasing their mental well-being in a world in crisis.
Best Links of The Week
19.09.2023
The Blackfoot Wisdom that Inspired Maslow’s Hierarchy
Those who know me, know that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is an essential part of the training I use whenever I work with adults who advocate for children and youth. This article highlighted a new insight into that research I had previously not learned; Maslow’s extensive stay with the with the Blackfoot people. He invested a prolonged period of study with The Siksika, of the Great Plains in Montana, Alberta and Saskatchewan (funded by a grant from the Canadian Government's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council). The Sikisika measure wealth by how much you give, instead of how much you accumulate. Many of you know that in Maslow’s later work he named a sixth level to his hierarchy, that of self-transcendence. Beyond his fifth level, self-fulfillment—the sixth step—revealed we need to transcend ourselves to be totally fulfilled. I wish Maslow had more time, before his death in 1970, to develop this theory. But his research with native tribal people in Canada, was essential to his findings.
18.09.2023
Incarcerated students win award for mental health solution
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/incarcerated-students-win-award-for-mental-health-solution/
Who else could identify the solutions for youth criminal behavior better than young people convicted of it and given the opportunity to learn? For decades, we’ve known that incarceration and isolation are the least effective forms of behavior modification, usually causing more damage than it decreases. Kudos to these young people for identifying that hypocrisy and congratulations to the adults that led them through the cognitive process to articulate their situation so profoundly.
17.09.2023
Parents of trans kids urge Senate to oppose online safety bill that could harm LGBTQ+ youth
This bill will be touted as a solution by both the right and left, but it is a poison pill. The real reason young people turn to the Internet for information is that they can’t talk openly to anyone else. With conservative evangelicals shutting down opportunities for safe discussion, where do young people go with the gender identity questions? The Internet is NOT the problem, the lack of safe adults to discuss gender development is the core issue. This bill will only exacerbate that problem because adults will rest on their laurels, pat themselves on the back and think they did something—across the aisle.
16.09.2023
Texas schools and families struggle as hundreds of thousands of kids lose Medicaid coverage
If one were to step back and look at the United States, we might see a nation where children are under attack. No place is that more evident than in States governed by evangelical, right-wing, politicians like Greg Abbott, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Ron DeSantis. Simply examining the leading cause of death among children in the US, their literacy rates, and child poverty statistics would lead us to the conclusion that, although we demand they be born, we will are not being accountable for the lives. If we measured the greatness of a nation by how it cares for its children, the US would rank among the lowest, even including “developing nations.” Please also read the article below on the “Big New Report on American Children.”
15.09.2023
When Americans Abandon the Constitution
I’m listening to a book called, “Tyranny of the Minority,” by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. They examine the root causes of the demise of democracy from a historical and global perspective. Indeed, their last book was, “How Democracies Die.” I’m sure this new book will be my “pick of the year.” The preface alone was worth my investment. If you’re at all concerned about the direction of the US, please pick up this read or get an audio version.
14.09.2023
The Hurtful Words Adults Use That Harm Children The Most
https://apple.news/A4erc09OyS8yzsAgmib0_dA
Being aware of children’s developmental needs means we understand that all damage isn’t physical, indeed some of the most lasting scars we give to children results from our words and non-physical actions. Please post this article and discuss it as part of parenting, teaching or leading group home facilities. Perhaps our new childhood rhyme should be, “Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can wound as deeply”; they can destroy the heart and the will.
13.09.2023
A Big New Report on American Children Is Out. It’s Horrific.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/09/human-rights-watch-usa-child-abuse-labor-report.html
Mahatma Gandhi said, “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.” By this measurement, the US is truly bankrupt. That may be more than an idiom if the Boebert, Gaetz, Greene, and Santos party have their way with the budget this next couple of weeks.
This Week’s Links
19.09.2023
The Blackfoot Wisdom that Inspired Maslow’s Hierarchy
An Intellectual and a Moral Failure
https://apple.news/A4H0bRHKnRsaxnOgFCw9jSA
Americans Are Sleepwalking Through a National Emergency
https://apple.news/AkiMr69lLQxKX7fZSqz8ZxA
How Teachers Are Being Silenced on LGBTQ+ Issues and More
https://www.advocate.com/education/silencing-teachers-lgbtq
17 Moments in Black History DeSantis Wants to Hide From Florida Students
https://www.theroot.com/17-moments-in-black-history-desantis-wants-to-hide-from-1850839306
The Power and Meaning of Humility to Impact Your Life
https://blog.cognifit.com/the-power-and-meaning-of-humility-to-impact-your-life/
The Silent Secret to Success: The Power of Pause.
https://thetaoist.online/the-silent-secret-to-success-the-power-of-pause-6104ee61166f
What does being bilingual do to the brain?
https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/what-does-being-bilingual-do-to-the-brain
18.09.2023
Incarcerated students win award for mental health solution
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/incarcerated-students-win-award-for-mental-health-solution/
Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic—And What We Can Do About It
Why so many American kids are struggling to learn how to read — and how to fix that
https://apple.news/ANbUNC7JLTPCMwATU9H1LIQ
From Human Uniqueness to Mental Imagery: This Week's Top 5 Neuroscience Insights, September 17, 2023 - Neuroscience News
https://neurosciencenews.com/neuroscience-news-top-sept-17-2023/
The No. 1 personality trait linked to a long life
https://apple.news/AORTjhz9JQYS24WeQRS8fyw
Artificial intelligence has a high IQ but no emotional intelligence, and that comes with a cost
Shape Your Future Reality And Relationships By Using Your Imagination Today — Here's How
https://www.yourtango.com/love/manifest-ideal-life-with-imagination
Corporatism and Convict Leasing in the American South
https://www.aier.org/article/corporatism-and-convict-leasing-in-the-american-south/
17.09.2023
Parents of trans kids urge Senate to oppose online safety bill that could harm LGBTQ+ youth
What Is After-School Restraint Collapse?
https://www.popsugar.com/family/after-school-restraint-collapse-49264674
A resurfaced blooper from 'Sesame Street' featuring Elmo and Robin Williams is so wholesome
20 AI Tools for Teachers
https://www.aitoolsclub.com/20-ai-tools-for-teachers/
The Great Dechurching looks at why people are leaving churches
https://apple.news/AVl6ZcU9NTP2z0va45bqZHA
16.09.2023
Texas schools and families struggle as hundreds of thousands of kids lose Medicaid coverage
The Very Common, Very Harmful Thing Well-Meaning Parents Do
https://apple.news/AjbC3W1lXQ9a9fqNGJ43vqg
I'm a doctor still treating COVID patients. I'm getting the booster – you should, too.
https://apple.news/A5IUMHNkMRzaYgximEbUhRQ
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson says 'whole truth' about Black history must be taught
15.09.2023
When Americans Abandon the Constitution
I’m Overwhelmed: What to Do When Life Feels Like a Lot
https://apple.news/AKDxoC-BdTRWCy-f_sf-9Gw
How to build resilience: 3 science-backed tips
https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/how-to-build-resilience-3-science-backed-tips
Do You Talk Too Much? You Need Brevity — Here are 6 Communication Strategies to Avoid Over-Talking
2023 Ig Nobel Prize winners: Celebrating the silly side of science
https://newatlas.com/science/2023-ig-nobel-prize-winners/
14.09.2023
The Hurtful Words Adults Use That Harm Children The Most
https://apple.news/A4erc09OyS8yzsAgmib0_dA
Florida teachers, parents push back against DeSantis' controversial Black history curriculum change with rallies, tours
5 Trans Students Explain How They’re Coping With Harassment, Protests, and More at School
https://www.them.us/story/trans-students-harassment-protests-back-to-school
Tamika Mallory Explains What Does It Mean To Be ‘Woke'
https://newsone.com/4714611/tamika-mallory-explains-what-does-it-mean-to-be-woke/
A comment shouted from a stranger in a passing car saved her life
We don't understand how emotions work. A neuroscientist explains why we often get it wrong
https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/what-are-emotions
A School Without Bells or Report Cards. Can It Fly? (Opinion)
Yes, the new Covid vaccine costs money. Yes, you should get it.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/new-covid-vaccine-booster-released-rcna104860
13.09.2023
A Big New Report on American Children Is Out. It’s Horrific.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/09/human-rights-watch-usa-child-abuse-labor-report.html
Humility is the foundation to a virtuous life
https://theconversation.com/humility-is-the-foundation-to-a-virtuous-life-207897
8 Helpful Phrases That Make Your Partner Feel Heard
https://www.fatherly.com/life/phrases-that-make-partner-feel-heard
Youth Advocacy
Advocating for young people and increasing their mental well-being during Suicide Prevention Week.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 37 (175 total reports)
06.09.2023-12.09.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advocating for young people and increasing their mental well-being during Suicide Prevention Week.
Best Links of The Week
12.09.2023
Pity the Children of Oklahoma and Florida Who Are Being Pumped Full of PragerU Nonsense
If the right wing GOP and Christian Evangelicals have their way—which they do in some states like Florida, Texas and Oklahoma—children will not grow up to have an education, but an indoctrination. If you have not read any of PragerU’s babble that they’re passing off as curricula, then take a moment to review this article. The content they are including is racist and demeaning to all people except White Christians Nationalists. Raising closed-minded simpletons indoctrinated into white nationalism is apparently a goal of the GOP in an attempt to ensure voter participation in the future. It also reveals the true hidden agenda of the far right, which Trump’s Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, clearly promoted; the dismantling of Public Education in the US.
11.09.2023
World Suicide Prevention Day: LGBTQ+ Groups Raise Awareness
https://www.advocate.com/health/world-suicide-prevention-day-2023
This is Suicide Prevention Week, an effort largely championed congressionally by Senator Harry Reid to support mental health awareness. A tragic perfect storm is forming with increased stress among pre-teens and teens, low post-COVID education participation and GOP attacks on the gender-exploration of young people. Add mass shootings and climate change to the mix and it is not hard to see why this week of awareness needs more attention than ever. Please find out what events are occurring in your community or—if you work with young people—access the wealth of material that is available on this web site. Youth mental health is especially fragile at this time and your support is needed.
10.09.2023
World’s Top School Systems Try to Ease Pressure on Students
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/worlds-top-school-systems-try-to-ease-pressure-on-students-a6154973
The top school systems of the world (US not included) are beginning to recognize the unprecedented amount of stress students are facing globally. This article identifies those pressures and steps some countries are taking to alleviate it. Is your community aware of these efforts? What are they doing to help with youth mental health?
09.09.2023
Why a Religious Scholar Is Focused on America’s White Supremacy
https://apple.news/ARdrwoUV2QkaZj5NE9jlNjQ
This is one of the best articles I’ve read on White Supremacy, tracing it back to the Discovery Doctrine written by Pope Alexander VI in 1493. This doctrine basically gave permission—even the holy vocation—to subjugate non-Christian, non-Anglo persons wherever they were found in the world.
08.09.2023
5 Big Challenges Facing K-12 Education Today—And Ideas for Tackling Them
This article largely focuses on the challenges faced in education in the US and possibly Canada. Still, it is worth reviewing for both understanding the challenges education faces from a solutions-based approach.
07.09.2023
Inside the Enormous Costs of Prison Phone Calls
https://apple.news/AZ8m2aDujRou2otxnJoAxhw
The primary means of lowering recidivism is helping inmates create healthy adult communities while they are still IN prison. This should be the focus of all corrections, it is plain that using prison for punishment is both counterproductive and expensive. Community connections are impeded by the prices for-profit providers have instituted for all aspects of fostering relationships with inmates. Visitations, e-mails, and telephone calls have all become profit centers for unscrupulous government contractors in multiple states. Kudos to states like Connecticut that are targeting these costs and increasing access to communication between our communities and our incarcerated people. It is important to remember that 95% of inmates will return to their community and be our neighbors. What kind of neighbor do you want?
06.09.2023
You’ve Probably Heard of Montessori Schools, But What Are They, Exactly?
https://parade.com/living/what-is-a-montessori-school
I’m a firm believer in Montessori schools and their practices. If you’ve not heard of them, read this article to understand why they are so effective and needed. Montessori practices have been taught and applied in many of the highest functioning schools of the world.
This Week’s Links
12.09.2023
Pity the Children of Oklahoma and Florida Who Are Being Pumped Full of PragerU Nonsense
Where Our Negative Thoughts Come From
11.09.2023
World Suicide Prevention Day: LGBTQ+ Groups Raise Awareness
https://www.advocate.com/health/world-suicide-prevention-day-2023
Coco Gauff's message to young girls: 'Never give up on your dreams'
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/coco-gauffs-message-young-girls-give-dreams-103076631
Medical debt nearly pushed this family into homelessness. Millions more are at risk
Survival of the friendliest: Why kindness, not aggression, helped humans thrive
The Power of Not Reacting: Buddha's Approach to Peaceful Living
https://yourstory.com/2023/09/buddhas-guide-mastering-emotions
Why All the Recent Talk About Childhood Trauma?
Grant-Winning Nonprofit Sees Volunteer Tutors as Key to Closing Math Learning Gap
10.09.2023
World’s Top School Systems Try to Ease Pressure on Students
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/worlds-top-school-systems-try-to-ease-pressure-on-students-a6154973
The search for a church that isn't a church
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/10/1198509609/the-search-for-a-church-that-isnt-a-church
What to know about Florida's 'classic' alternative to the SAT
4 Ways To Stop Minimizing Yourself In Your Own Life
https://www.yourtango.com/self/how-to-stop-minimizing-yourself
Unmasked: The Oil Industry Campaign to Undermine California's Clean Energy Future
The forward-looking Mexico that Republicans dare not talk about
Red States Are Rolling Back the Rights Revolution
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/09/supreme-court-republican-civil-rights/675265/
When It Comes to Emotional Energy, Are You ‘Waxed Paper’ or ‘Velcro’? Here’s How to Find Out
https://www.wellandgood.com/emotional-energy-type/
Fridays for Future: Greta’s school strikes led a third of Swiss citizens to change their habits
Groundbreaking brain study identifies four different types of Autism
09.09.2023
Why a Religious Scholar Is Focused on America’s White Supremacy
https://apple.news/ARdrwoUV2QkaZj5NE9jlNjQ
Advice | How parents can help their children cultivate healthy friendships
https://apple.news/AyFHpwoZATdybhudrTt0ynQ
In 2011, San Francisco opened savings accounts for kindergartners — now they're going to be college freshmen
Unlock success by taking control of “disempowering narratives”
https://bigthink.com/smart-skills/unlock-success-by-taking-control-of-disempowering-narratives/
08.09.2023
5 Big Challenges Facing K-12 Education Today—And Ideas for Tackling Them
Why are Texas teachers quitting the profession in record numbers? Here's what they told us.
An alleged teacher shortage in the Sunshine State
https://theweek.com/education/1026335/teacher-shortage-florida
Peaceful Parenting Is The Hardest, But Most Rewarding, Parenting Style
https://www.fatherly.com/parenting/peaceful-parenting
The 1 Thing That Child Therapists Say Harms Kids' Happiness The Most
https://apple.news/An9ve0BoMSQm5eBu-0sNChA
30 Journal Prompts That Boost Bliss, Slash Stress and Ease Anxiety in Minutes
https://www.firstforwomen.com/posts/emotional-health/journal-prompts-for-mental-health
Why Humming Could Be Your Ticket to Near-Instant Calm
https://www.wellandgood.com/benefits-of-humming/
'The Great Dechurching' explores America's religious exodus
https://religionnews.com/2023/09/07/the-great-dechurching-explores-americas-religious-exodus/
Feeling Adrift? Rediscover Purpose and Meaning with These 9 Books
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/feeling-adrift-rediscover-purpose-meaning-9-books/44704/
07.09.2023
Inside the Enormous Costs of Prison Phone Calls
https://apple.news/AZ8m2aDujRou2otxnJoAxhw
The right is making public education intolerable. That's not an accident.
https://apple.news/A0cgnEMGGTp-WdFtyoBjzjg
American Democracy Perseveres—For Now
https://apple.news/ANAFvh2w2Q-GF41os_c3JsQ
DeSantis's Campaign Slogan Amounts to 'LGBTQ+ People Are the Enemy'
https://apple.news/AWWpYstJDRsm3XS9amrJ1hg
How Trust Works: The Science of How Relationships are Built, Broken and Repaired
Abortions surged in states near those with new bans: study
https://www.axios.com/2023/09/07/abortions-surged-state-bans
06.09.2023
You’ve Probably Heard of Montessori Schools, But What Are They, Exactly?
https://parade.com/living/what-is-a-montessori-school
Master of Change: How to Excel When Everything Is Changing – Including You
Philosophy 101: The 5 Major Branches of Philosophy Explained
https://www.thecollector.com/what-are-the-branches-of-philosophy/
Are you addicted to anxiety? Ask yourself these 6 questions
Youth Advocacy
Advocating for young people and increasing their life-long learning opportunities through the habits of questioning and wonder.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 36 (174 total reports)
30.08.2023-05.09.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advocating for young people and increasing their life-long learning opportunities through the habits of questioning and wonder.
Best Links of The Week
05.09.2023
Classic clip shows Carl Sagan explaining why parents should encourage their children to ask questions
Mr. Rogers, Carl Sagan, and now, Neil deGrasse Tyson, all amazing educators using the power of the media of their time to promote wonder and lifelong learning. In this clip (with Johnny Carson), Sagan reminds us that the number one action parents can take to encourage their child’s learning is to keep asking questions. Have you created a climate in your own family, school, or group home that encourages children and teens to become questioning adults?
04.09.2023
Do You Know Your Core Values? Here's A List Of 99 Important Ones To Help Find Yours
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/what-are-core-values
In our values-development programs at Communities of Trust, we taught those who work with children that humans learn what they value from those who value them and they grow their values by valuing others. We created weekly curricula that older youth taught to younger students around important terms such as “What is a Value?” I’m posting this article to hopefully inspire some of you to read through this list for values you’d like to put into practice with the young people around you.
03.09.2023
Khan Academy founder Sal Khan on AI and the future of education (Transcript)
When Sal Khan speaks, I take note. The Khan Academy is one of the tools I have suggested to parents and youth advocates for years. If you have a child or adolescent struggling with concepts at school, check out their web site together. Their instructional videos break the mold for encouraging engaged learning and are driven by being non-profit, having the highest-quality content, and continuous product improvement.
02.09.2023
The Magic of “What If”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-path-to-passionate-happiness/202309/the-magic-of-what-if
In the vein of teaching young people through critical inquiry, this simple question of, “What if…” never grows old. The writer of this article uses the question as a therapy tool for those experiencing anxiety.
01.09.2023
Voters in all parties are concerned about the GOP’s anti-LGBTQ+ school policies
It is a common tool of manipulators to make others think everyone agrees with them, “Everyone is doing it…” bullies do this, advertisers do this. In case, you have been victimized by conservative evangelicals and the GOP, here are some statistics to remind you that not everyone thinks their moralistic pursuits are sane, healthy, or even legitimate. Once again, we are challenged to realize that being in power doesn’t mean you are right, it just means that the myth you are preaching is the best-financed. We must keep asking, “Who has the most at stake to be threatened by diversity in this area?”
31.082023
In Praise of Heroic Masculinity
https://apple.news/A6_Ch3xecRYG8Zj9vlj4sqA
This is a good article to read if you are looking for terms to counter, “Toxic Masculinity.” What type of masculinity do we want to teach our young men—and women? There are thoughtful suggestions presented in this article to engage your family or staff in considering this question. Children become what they see and many of the male leadership examples visible to young people today are far from healthy. Even if you begin by asking each other, “What are our ideas about healthy male role models and how do we exemplify them in front of our children (or the children in our care)?” Put the question on a large sheet of paper and make post-it notes available for people to add comments for a week. Post the link to this article as a reference and ask people to post other items they think are pertinent.
30.08.2023
The simple, yet powerful shift that can actually keep you motivated
https://www.upworthy.com/andrew-huberman-how-to-stay-motivated
Keeping young people motivated to learn and grow is difficult, but it begins with keeping ourselves motivated with an open mind set. If you are having difficulties in that area right now. This article will help get you back on track.
This Week’s Links
05.09.2023
Classic clip shows Carl Sagan explaining why parents should encourage their children to ask questions
My Child Has Severe Anxiety — The Only Coping Mechanism That Worked
https://www.yourtango.com/family/child-has-severe-anxiety-only-coping-mechanism-that-worked
Inseparable elderly lions Hubert and Kalisa put down together so that neither has to live alone
https://scoop.upworthy.com/inseparable-elderly-lions-hubert-kalisa-put-down-together-464543-464543
8 Ways to Turn a Good Leader Into an Exceptional One
https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/8-ways-to-become-the-exceptional-leader-that-people/457572
10 Rules for Coaching Your Team to Greatness
https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/10-rules-for-coaching-your-team-to-greatness/458206
04.09.2023
Do You Know Your Core Values? Here's A List Of 99 Important Ones To Help Find Yours
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/what-are-core-values
Gun owners: It's time for us to stand up against the Second Amendment death culture
Minimum wage map: As the Fight for $15 keeps evolving, these states still pay $7.25 an hour
https://www.fastcompany.com/90937929/minimum-wage-map-hourly-by-state-us-labor-day
AI identifies top predictors of adolescent suicide and self-harm
https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/ai-identifies-top-predictors-adolescent-suicide-self-harm/
03.09.2023
Khan Academy founder Sal Khan on AI and the future of education (Transcript)
7 Simple Ways To Stop Ruminating About The Same Things (Over & Over & Over)
https://www.yourtango.com/self/simple-ways-stop-ruminating-about-same-things-over-over-again
Pope, quoting Buddha, urges religious dialogue to fight fundamentalism
Rep. Crockett: Republicans are tearing our democracy down one school board at a time
02.09.2023
The Magic of “What If”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-path-to-passionate-happiness/202309/the-magic-of-what-if
Single mom perfectly explains to Congress why the U.S. poverty line needs a total rehaul
https://www.upworthy.com/poverty-line-congress-rp1
Harvard’s Arthur C. Brooks on the Secrets to Happiness at Work
https://hbr.org/2023/09/harvards-arthur-c-brooks-on-the-secrets-to-happiness-at-work
Opinion | My Son Sam Doesn’t Need ‘Special Ed’
https://apple.news/AAnGuoW4oRkmjj2vYDJnVRQ
12 personal growth strategies that will level up your leadership
https://www.fastcompany.com/90943450/personal-growth-strategies-level-up-leadership
Can't Stop Worrying? Here's How To Let It Go, According To Mental Health Experts
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/how-to-stop-worrying
How to Purge the Toxic Emotions in Yourself to Facilitate Healing
https://www.entrepreneur.com/living/how-to-purge-toxic-emotions-to-facilitate-healing/457207
01.09.2023
Voters in all parties are concerned about the GOP’s anti-LGBTQ+ school policies
The Key To Mental Health Could Come Down To 3 Basic Needs
https://www.fatherly.com/health/key-mental-health-3-basic-needs-self-determination-theory
31.082023
In Praise of Heroic Masculinity
https://apple.news/A6_Ch3xecRYG8Zj9vlj4sqA
High-School English Needed a Makeover Before ChatGPT
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/08/chatgpt-rebirth-high-school-english/675189/
8 Helpful Things To Say When Someone Is Complaining
https://www.fatherly.com/life/complaining-what-to-say-advice
3 Ways to Recognize a Master Manipulator
Florida's Whitewashing of the History of Slavery Is Quite a Thing to Behold
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a44952669/florida-slavery-history-schools/
4 Tips For Raising A Child Who Understands Their Strengths and Weaknesses
https://www.fatherly.com/parenting/raise-child-understands-strengths-weaknesses
30.08.2023
The simple, yet powerful shift that can actually keep you motivated
https://www.upworthy.com/andrew-huberman-how-to-stay-motivated
New poll reveals the top 20 things 'that make us feel good' in 2023
https://www.upworthy.com/new-poll-reveals-the-top-20-things-that-make-us-feel-good-in-2023
Pam Baker's new book 'ChatGPT for Dummies' illuminates chatbots for pros and neophytes alike - SiliconANGLE
Pope rips rightwing American Catholics as useless idealogues who have lost the faith
West Virginia's foreign language cuts could be a "blueprint" for higher ed attacks
https://www.axios.com/2023/08/30/west-virginia-university-foreign-language-classes
Groundbreaking study documents the positive effects reading has on kids
The Key to Employee Engagement Is Purpose. Here's Why — and How to Foster It in Your Workplace.
Youth Advocacy
Advocating for young people and increasing their resilience in the face of narcissism and high anxiety.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 35 (173 total reports)
23.08.2023-29.08.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advocating for young people and increasing their resilience in the face of narcissism and high anxiety.
Best Links of The Week
29.08.2023
Teens are crumbling under extreme pressure. Parents need to change.
https://apple.news/AFJf--q-VRtqFW59vaIcNbw
The anxiety of children is a reflection of the adults that surround them. What they hear and feel at home, in the car, and at mealtimes. We must remember that children and teens do not have effective filters for many of these reflections, they also learn how to respond from us. How we cope (or don’t) is how they cope (or don’t). If we want to change our children’s or teen’s behavior we have to do a continuous inventory of our own anxieties and responses.
28.08.2023
How to Increase Your "Neuroplasticity," in Seven Key Steps
https://www.insidehook.com/article/health-and-fitness/increase-neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is the ability to be cognitively flexible and is essential to change or adjustment to the evolving circumstances surrounding us. It is almost a truism to say that change is a constant and that the rapidity of change in our world is increasing exponentially. The inability to be flexible in the midst of this change is a root cause of many mental and social disorders. When we don’t feel cognitively flexible, we feel constantly cognitively stressed with the inability to control the circumstances around us (although the problem is really inside us).
27.08.2023
Mastering the art of arguing productively
https://www.fastcompany.com/90943884/mastering-the-art-of-arguing-productively
All of us want to have productive conversations—especially when they are challenging ones. But to reach that ideal, we have to be able to identify what a productive outcome would be. This article identifies promoting understanding and clarity of thought as two primary goals of difficult conversations (arguments). I also like the article because it uses a reference to a Monty Python sketch (The Argument Clinic) as a reference point.
26.08.2023
Educating women is the fastest way to combat climate change
https://www.upworthy.com/educating-women-is-the-fastest-way-to-combat-climate-change
The primary point of this article is that women make 91% of the decisions in households, this includes the “electrification” of the energy source of a home.
25.08.2023
It’s Time To Be Honest About Native American Boarding Schools In The U.S.
There is a belief that people attempt to hide history because they WANT to repeat it. This is an alarming thought, but it is a shoe that fits the foot in the case of the racist rhetoric of conservatives like Stephen Miller and Ron DeSantis. This article points out that many people who grew up in the US (and Canada) education systems of the last half a century may never have been exposed to the role of religion in the attempt at ethnocide and genocide of the Native American population.
24.08.2023
How to be a good listener - and how to know when you're doing it right
Hopefully, most people reading this blog can recognize the difference between being a good listener and being an advisor. If we could teach people that most of us want to be understood, not fixed, we would go a long way towards reducing the mental illnesses of our world today.
23.08.2023
The Eight Kinds of Humility That Can Help You Stay Grounded
I’ve always believed that we should be as ardent (if not more so) in teaching “school humility” as we are about promoting “school pride.” This article examines 8 types of humility that we can apply to our lives and share with those around us. There were many types of humility in this short review that I hadn’t even considered. I hope you will approach it, with humility, and take time to digest some of the information.
This Week’s Links
29.08.2023
Teens are crumbling under extreme pressure. Parents need to change.
https://apple.news/AFJf--q-VRtqFW59vaIcNbw
Echo Chambers Amplified: How CNN and Fox News Fuel America's Polarization - Neuroscience News
https://neurosciencenews.com/news-media-political-polarization-23849/
The Big Lesson Parents Of High-Achieving Kids Must Teach Again And Again
https://www.fatherly.com/parenting/big-lesson-parents-high-achieving-kids-must-teach
The Manipulative Narcissist
How To Stop Overthinking and Live Your Life
School Anxiety Is More and More Common — Here’s How to Help Your Kiddo Through It
https://www.popsugar.com/family/school-anxiety-49250065
Conservatives try to end county’s libraries after failing to ban 11 books
28.08.2023
How to Increase Your "Neuroplasticity," in Seven Key Steps
https://www.insidehook.com/article/health-and-fitness/increase-neuroplasticity
Many American Parents Have No Idea How Their Kids Are Doing in School
https://time.com/6308834/american-parents-how-their-kids-doing-in-school/
Baking Cakes and Building Brains. A Renowned Neuroscientist Explains the Shocking Truth of Emotional Intelligence
https://www.inc.com/nick-hobson/a-neuroscientist-explains-truth-of-emotional-intelligence.html
9-year-old girl with autism has an IQ higher than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking
27.08.2023
Mastering the art of arguing productively
https://www.fastcompany.com/90943884/mastering-the-art-of-arguing-productively
Actually useful ways to help children with homework, bullying, and mental health.
https://www.vox.com/even-better/23844294/parents-help-kids-school-homework-bullying-mental-health
26.08.2023
Educating women is the fastest way to combat climate change
https://www.upworthy.com/educating-women-is-the-fastest-way-to-combat-climate-change
Why Schools Are Building Housing for Teachers
https://apple.news/AGqEj99kwQey8fycXA-HguQ
A neuroscientist explains how religious fundamentalism hijacks the brain
https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/fundamentalism-mental-health/
Psychologist: 2 styles of parenting that lead kids to become narcissistic adults
https://apple.news/APf0DKM5_SGeK_J1oXpW3VQ
Texas ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for trans kids will go into effect despite legal fight
https://apple.news/AZTb1MUunRzK9DIFAeelObA
25.08.2023
It’s Time To Be Honest About Native American Boarding Schools In The U.S.
6 Game-Changing Mindset Shifts I Wish I'd Known About Sooner
https://www.entrepreneur.com/living/6-mindset-strategies-i-wish-id-known-earlier-in-my-career/457691
24.08.2023
How to be a good listener - and how to know when you're doing it right
Why a stranger's hello can do more than just brighten your day
Become a Positive Thought Warrior: 3 Mindset Shifts to Go From Suffering to Self-Compassion
Generational Researcher Jean Twenge on How Smartphones Destroyed Gen Z—and What Parents Can Do About It
https://time.com/6307832/jean-twenge-interview-person-of-the-week/
8 classes that should be required for all students before they hit adulthood
https://www.upworthy.com/8-classes-that-should-be-required-for-all-students-but-arent-rp4
A Neuroscientist Explains Why These 5 Phrases Are Holding You Back and What to Say Instead
Our vagus nerves help us rest, digest and restore. Can you really reset them to feel better?
23.08.2023
The Eight Kinds of Humility That Can Help You Stay Grounded
The Science Behind Narcissism
https://apple.news/AgttZhhJ8T_yWykc-WIyOGg
More than 100 chaplains urge Texans not to hire school chaplains
Mindfulness in the Classroom: Strengthen Students' Focus in 3 Minutes a Day (Opinion)
How Creativity Training Helps Kids Tackle Life’s Hurdles and Boosts Resilience
https://neurosciencenews.com/creativity-resilience-neurodevelopment-23805/
This Year, Schools Are Teaching ChatGPT Instead of Banning It
https://tech.co/news/schools-teaching-chatgpt-banning
3 Ways to Build Unbeatable Rapport With People That Transforms into Trust
Where the Republican Candidates Stand on Climate Change
https://heatmap.news/politics/republican-2024-candidates-climate-change-2024
You Will Get Rejected — How You Handle It Will Make You Successful. Here Are 3 Ways to Turn It Into Power
https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/3-ways-to-overcome-rejection-and-turn-it-into-power/456935
Youth Advocacy
Advocating for young people and increasing their resilience in the face of disinformation.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 34 (172 total reports)
16.08.2023-22.08.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advocating for young people and increasing their resilience in the face of disinformation.
Best Links of The Week
22.08.2023
On Disinformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy
https://netbigideaclub.com/magazine/disinformation-fight-truth-protect-democracy-bookbite/44426/
In a link below, young people are asking for assistance in understanding disinformation, this book takes a big step into breaking down insidious attempts to undermine democracy with fiction and lies. Let’s make this book a bestseller, along with another of Dr. Lee McIntyre’s books, “How to talk to a Science Denier.”
21.08.2023
Gun deaths among children and teens in the U.S. reached a new record in 2021, study finds
It should come as no surprise that gun deaths have become the leading cause of death in children in the US. The bombshell lies in the continued “non-response” of politicians. If we say to “follow the money” we can clearly see that many politicians—especially those like Ted Cruz—have pockets deeply lined by gun advocates money. The question that needs to be asked is what kind of person chooses profiting from a lobbyist over the lives of children? There are significant ways to reduce gun usage (especially high-caliber, rapid-fire weapons) that don’t involve total bans on weapons; it is not an “own or no own” question. This is a Second Amendment, human rights, issue about the right to live, not the right to bear arms.
20.08.2023
Several Virginia School Districts Simply Said No to Implementing Anti-LGBTQ+ Policies
https://www.them.us/story/virginia-school-districts-reject-anti-trans-policies
Adolescents have a number of mental health issues to contend with, gender-diffuse adolescents have even more. The compassionate understanding needed during this questioning period of development can be life-saving. Adolescent suicide is highest among this group of young people (LGBTQ+ youth). Ostracizing them and using school and state policies to torment them is not just inhumane, it is criminal and increases the likelihood of suicide. Conservatives have longed used sexual diversity as a punching bag for their hatred. Putin is doubling-down no this tactic in his war on Ukraine, claiming to Russians in his official “news” that the Ukrainian Military is made of a new super-human race of gay warriors.
19.08.2023
Stop Talking About ‘Gaps’ in Education—Talk About Harm (Opinion)
This commentary by Columbia University Professor, Bettina Love, asks us to start accurately naming the “gaps” in education—especially among racial lines—for what they really are; racism and harm-producing. This harm is only being perpetuated by the Supreme Court and Conservatives in their “post-racial” beliefs as depicted in their policies and rulings. I would further suggest that the policies this current group of political hacks, like Ron DeSantis, is developing and especially by they embrace of pseudo-education organizations like PragerU, is causing irreparable damage to a generation of children who will raised to believe that slavery was beneficial to slaves and not the heinous crime against humanity it was.
18.08.2023
Judge rules in favor of Montana youths in landmark climate decision
https://apple.news/A1fQMBt69SDaunNS63c8F3A
https://www.openculture.com/2023/08/wealth-and-poverty-a-free-online-course.html
Montana is one of a handful of states that has a constitutional amendment protecting the climate rights of future generations. Despite vitriolic attacks by conservative pro-fossil fuel groups in their state, these young people sued for the protection of that constitutional right—and won! This landmark ruling will provide a roadmap for other young people who want to protect their future. Hopefully, with more than climate rights, but also gun rights and rights to bodily autonomy. Kudos to these young people and other young people like David Hogg who are tired of the conservative response, “thoughts and prayers.” “Policy and Action” is their new maxim.
17.08.2023
Young People Tell Us They Need Help Identifying Misinformation
https://apple.news/AdEi56P06Su-rROoVclcG9g
The first step to fighting misinformation is recognizing our susceptibility to it. Then, it is to recognize how pervasive it is. Sadly, most adults who accept misinformation as truth, prefer their illusion because reality can be uncomfortable and involve change—especially a change of perspective and the admission of culpability in sharing falsehood.
16.08.2023
What we get wrong about self-esteem: It's built through actions, not words
Cognitive Dissonance or the belief that our perceptions are more likely to change to conform to our consistent action (habits) rather than what we tell ourselves (self-talk) is not new in psychology. I have longed believed that helping young people help others is much more important in teaching them values than telling them what they should value. The research in this article supports this approach. As we determine how best to shape the compassionate (indeed, WOKE) values of a new generation, we need to analyze how we move beyond the classroom and into helping young people act in their communities.
This Week’s Links
22.08.2023
On Disinformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/disinformation-fight-truth-protect-democracy-bookbite/44426/
4 Reasons for the Increase in Mental Health Conditions
https://apple.news/A0hgZIqonQiaum_I4PCihkA
Dismantling the myth that ancient slavery 'wasn't that bad'
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-dismantling-myth-ancient-slavery-wasnt.html
If You Think Drug Addiction isn't a Problem in Your Workplace, You're Wrong
https://apple.news/A-q6PlsrOSBet11Qngxbzmg
21.08.2023
Gun deaths among children and teens in the U.S. reached a new record in 2021, study finds
People forgot how to act in public
https://apple.news/AGu46il1NQF6U94QxF2NHqw
20.08.2023
Several Virginia School Districts Simply Said No to Implementing Anti-LGBTQ+ Policies
https://www.them.us/story/virginia-school-districts-reject-anti-trans-policies
How to stop catastrophising – a psychologist’s guide
https://apple.news/AkPRUF4diRk2wxfXh6aSs3w
Emotionally Intelligent People Use a Brilliant 2-Word Phrase to Speak Up and Get Results
19.08.2023
Stop Talking About ‘Gaps’ in Education—Talk About Harm (Opinion)
Several Virginia School Districts Simply Said No to Implementing Anti-LGBTQ+ Policies
https://www.them.us/story/virginia-school-districts-reject-anti-trans-policies
10 Free Educational Apps to Make Your Kids’ Phone Time Count
https://www.cubbyathome.com/free-educational-phone-apps-80031426
18.08.2023
Judge rules in favor of Montana youths in landmark climate decision
https://apple.news/A1fQMBt69SDaunNS63c8F3A
Robert Reich’s UC Berkeley Course on Wealth & Poverty Is Free Online
https://www.openculture.com/2023/08/wealth-and-poverty-a-free-online-course.html
Georgia teacher fired for having book about gender identity in classroom
https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2023/08/18/cobb-county-teacher-fired-gender-identity-book
An Anthropologist Was Taught The Emotional Lesson Of 'Ubuntu' From Kids In A South African Tribe — And It's Something American Kids Should Learn, Too
https://www.yourtango.com/entertainment/south-african-ubuntu-teach-american-kids-emotional-lesson
America’s richest 10% are responsible for 40% of its planet-heating pollution, new report finds
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/17/business/rich-americans-climate-footprint-emissions
7 Ways To Ground Yourself When Daily Chaos Makes You Lose It
https://www.yourtango.com/self/ways-ground-yourself-when-daily-chaos-makes-you-lose-it
Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age
https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/religion-in-human-evolution-from-the-paleolithic-to-the-axial-ag/
American Evangelicals are getting mad at Jesus for being too woke
Want to Sound Smarter? Keep Your Writing Simple and Jargon Free
https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/writing-tips-sound-smarter-by-keeping-your-writing-simple.html
13 executives share how to adjust your leadership style to today’s toughest challenges
17.08.2023
Young People Tell Us They Need Help Identifying Misinformation
https://apple.news/AdEi56P06Su-rROoVclcG9g
“As a people-pleaser, I thought I was just a good person. My therapist called bullsh*t”
https://apple.news/ANVdU1KX6R1mJjdCuPpJcKg
If You Want To Be Truly Free And Happy, You Must Banish These 4 Thoughts
https://www.yourtango.com/self/want-be-truly-free-happy-banish-these-thoughts
What Separates Highly Creative People
https://nautil.us/what-separates-highly-creative-people-362925/
16.08.2023
What we get wrong about self-esteem: It's built through actions, not words
Yale Psychologist: To Reach Peak Performance, Talk to Yourself Like a Friend, Not a Drill Sergeant
Does your kid struggle with ADHD? Studies are revealing something that can help more than medication: A daily report card
https://fortune.com/well/2023/08/15/adhd-school-disruptions-medication-daily-report-card/
Youth Advocacy
Advocating for young people and increasing their resilience in the face of moral absolutism.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 33 (171 total reports)
09.08.2023-15.08.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advocating for young people and increasing their resilience in the face of moral absolutism.
Best Links of The Week
15.08.2023
Why Americans are so awful to one another
https://apple.news/AGixaxcoPQpy5CdYt03IT6w
David Brooks, the author of this in-depth article, is one of my favorite commentators in print and on TV. Every Friday, my wife and I tune in to the PBS News Hour to enjoy his reflections on weekly events, now with Jonathon Capehart. I have read a number of David’s books, my favorite being, “The Soul of America.” He is a conservative, but not a MAGA conservative. In this article, David discusses the literal death of Americans from depression and depression-related issues like addiction and loneliness. He also reflects on how Americans have become so self-referential. David offers a healthy and functional path to moral education that doesn’t wind up in the Ron DeSantis indoctrination camp. I’m a strong believer in teaching values development in schools. When Communities of Trust approached it in school districts where I consulted, the focus was 1) helping young people identify what a value is, 2) what their values were, and 3) how to make choices based upon their values, not upon pressure from their peers. If you’re interested in learning more about this approach, please contact me.
14.08.2023
‘The Death of Public School’ Review: Find a Place to Learn
https://apple.news/AGzgFhM_eTs6XBBYiokDJxQ
The problem with teaching morals in schools (also values or religion) is that we often teach the values or religion of the most powerful voices—which should not be confused with the voice of the majority. In this case, White, Christian, Nationalism. It is an approach to education that research reveals doesn’t work. It is indoctrination to teach one religion or one set of values to children. Children learn what they value from WHO values them and they grow their values by valuing others. If we want children to learn about our values, we need to build loving relationships with them. If we want them to grow values, we need to give them opportunities to practice them in real life settings such as peer mentoring.
13.08.2023
The Conservative War on the American Mind
https://apple.news/A9pQ_c30DT_uyvViFaQGQZg
The Far Right is dismantling liberal education because it undermines their votes. Let’s be clear, it is not because they are concerned about children, it is because they are trying to grow a right-wing electorate. If you review authoritarian regimes throughout history, you will find that taking control of education has always been a top priority. It is hard to tell if the Far Right is thinking for themselves or reading from a playbook by the Taliban.
12.08.2023
What gaslighting really is, and how to know if you’re experiencing it
https://apple.news/ASu8alkPtR1CGxUgzF0uSTw
Gaslighting is a clinical term that has lost much of its meaning in popular usage today. In order to prevent it, it is important to understand its nuances and what the compulsive behavior actually looks like, not just the popular terminology.
11.08.2023
Florida says it doesn’t want indoctrination in schools — but look at the materials it just approved
https://apple.news/AEJKmc9HbTF2QUnFKdG5pmA
The curricula approved by the DeSantis-appointed education board is indoctrination. They can try to dress it up and call it something else, but it is indoctrination. Sadly, the children growing up under the dictums of this board of education will not be able to live meaningful, fulfilling lives in a world that isn’t totalitarian. At the very least, these curriculum decisions will be fodder for educational malpractice, but, in the meantime, many young lives will be debilitated by the indoctrination drivel offered by PragerU. If you haven’t taken a moment to review some of their pseudo-education, propaganda, go to their web site and check them out. I hope you will be as alarmed as I.
10.08.2023
My Aristotelian Recipe for Happiness
https://apple.news/AwwNeLm9ZRb2PMK6Pwj7_nQ
This is a worthy review of Aristotelian literature applied to contemporary research on happiness. If you are involved in teaching well-being or happiness to young people in any manner, this review of classical material will provide a useful platform.
09.08.2023
“We’re not just voting. We’re also running.” David Hogg launches young-candidate PAC.
https://apple.news/AUIVekZ36QCKS8ZMaFl-nOQ
There were some big wins for young people in this week’s news. This is the generation that experienced gun violence first-hand and is tired of our “thoughts and prayers.” They want action and they are stepping off the sidelines and into the political limelight to demand it. From climate change in Montana to gun violence and women’s rights, this generation is demanding to be heard.
This Week’s Links
15.08.2023
Why Americans are so awful to one another
https://apple.news/AGixaxcoPQpy5CdYt03IT6w
2 years on from Taliban takeover, Afghan women are being “erased from everything”
https://apple.news/AlABXbYTSSk6CZtcqCEKrNg
What happens when a narcissist becomes a parent? They force their kids into these roles.
https://apple.news/AJiVNTG37Tv6Fd33B-dsMXQ
How Two Grieving Moms Built a Health Care Platform to End Loneliness
https://apple.news/AvewEZkp4QsquwFYi2UIF3w
Safeguarding AI Is Up to Everyone
https://apple.news/A5qhm7Sk7T_iSifFAHRqB1g
14.08.2023
‘The Death of Public School’ Review: Find a Place to Learn
https://apple.news/AGzgFhM_eTs6XBBYiokDJxQ
The most confusing years of your life — and strategies to get through them
https://apple.news/AGnusLzW6RgSnHg4N7h_yQA
From “crisis” to “catastrophe,” schools scramble once again to find teachers
https://apple.news/AOA_uyeFTR5eMzI8tYFsUuw
Navigating Your Child's Autism Treatment: Managing Challenges and Finding Support
https://apple.news/ASINth5UxQLGaDG2-92oC6g
Parents See Own Health Spiral as Their Kids’ Mental Illnesses Worsen
https://apple.news/AjDfhI0slRMmM-93TTrp31Q
Why Middle-Aged Americans Aren’t Going Back to Church
https://apple.news/AU0tGUJ_1Sd6YVO7fuvLXkQ
Advice | How to raise superpowered tweens in turbulent times
https://apple.news/AdaE4M4juRFWCx3q5CW8Qmg
The psychological immune system: four ways to bolster yours – and have a happier, calmer life
https://apple.news/AXIXZmc4xQmmk9wkBCeRxmg
6 ways to prepare for stressful situations before they happen
https://apple.news/A8DGg9QFrTUKhDK6vM-JTVQ
13.08.2023
The Conservative War on the American Mind
https://apple.news/A9pQ_c30DT_uyvViFaQGQZg
The Hijacking of Education — and How to Save It
https://apple.news/AkS7BR221QFSIEL7slS45Lg
Losing Our Religion review: Trump and the crisis of US Christianity
https://apple.news/AvWmN5axiSC-KMdJFuhDGPw
The GOP Is Done with Democracy
https://apple.news/ATT-MuYRmSxGjZ2J9SG5yBQ
One Good Thing: it’s high time you made self-compassion a must-do, not just an option
https://apple.news/AZWaWDzuDQ4KmJordefznbQ
Opinion: Young people can offer fresh perspectives on today's issues. We must take them seriously.
https://apple.news/AbfZ6-1FeTp-If7iV5yT0QA
Vice President Harris tells young activists in Chicago they can end gun violence: ‘Your generation is critical’
https://apple.news/AxugfJNlSRDOkMSiEo-bl3Q
4 daily habits of truly happy people
https://apple.news/AuM05o0kGQy-azhXjB0j0aw
Neuroscientist: These 3 questions can help you get better at embracing change
https://apple.news/AG7tTMzSBQOern7GThquCWw
The Thing My Therapist Said That Changed My Life
https://apple.news/AFCw9M9qfS2aIQnba-VgrOQ
Treat your happiness like an investment, and focus on these 4 areas
https://apple.news/AOIuEW8_jRmyxqRQrH6vNhQ
12.08.2023
What gaslighting really is, and how to know if you’re experiencing it
https://apple.news/ASu8alkPtR1CGxUgzF0uSTw
What Are the Differences in Diagnosing Autism in Girls and Boys?
https://apple.news/AU8QsZKd4RMau9iVm3osC3Q
‘Better martyrs’: the growing role of women in the far-right movement
https://apple.news/AWTxQGG5qQGCLjMcbjd2TCQ
What Is ‘Phubbing’? Study Shows How Can It Hurt Your Relationships
https://apple.news/ADWezgTXAQxGKvvKEiCcAaw
11.08.2023
Florida says it doesn’t want indoctrination in schools — but look at the materials it just approved
https://apple.news/AEJKmc9HbTF2QUnFKdG5pmA
I Was Wrong About Trigger Warnings
https://apple.news/A3Mgu9qhcRQqrb7veFHYY5g
The Tragedy of Being a New Mom in America
https://apple.news/AdhCLCq3GS4KMAlr-Wj3VNg
5 Healthy Ways to Deal With Anger
https://apple.news/ACZQ43FkzRimsoj1_uiHLuQ
Chaos and Hope in the Land Beyond the Drug War
https://apple.news/ApfciCwIeQs2Cvkczwif4PA
10.08.2023
My Aristotelian Recipe for Happiness
https://apple.news/AwwNeLm9ZRb2PMK6Pwj7_nQ
The 5 Words Emotionally Intelligent People Never Use to Show Empathy, Caring, and Support
https://apple.news/AbVL1PW4PS7C2j7KsyTa-eQ
Neuroscientist Shares 5-Step Guide To Help Kids Handle Life's Challenges
https://apple.news/AmHIlAjVmS7u6VNKLBDjP-Q
60% of Americans battling drug or alcohol addictions also have jobs. Here are the professions with the highest rates of substance-use disorder
https://apple.news/AUstUXDD5RiK2qUK3rMqWuw
How to Test a Child for Autism
https://apple.news/ACkNGTvXTTSq6o1ADFsuVWA
How to Support Autistic Teens: Physical Changes, Intellectual Expectations and More
https://apple.news/AftEOpnwUSUiCC6fiUBbH4Q
09.08.2023
“We’re not just voting. We’re also running.” David Hogg launches young-candidate PAC.
https://apple.news/AUIVekZ36QCKS8ZMaFl-nOQ
What to Read When You Can’t Focus on Reading
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2023/08/attention-focus-book-recommendations/674941/
Rediscover What Motivates You with Our Fullfillment Workbook
https://apple.news/AdwV_Bee9RgCLUnkbop9vmw
The science of happiness sounds great. But is the research solid?
https://apple.news/A2QkED08kTk6ZxubeVMlFGA
A boy on the autism spectrum struggled with a haircut. His barber saved the day
Youth Advocacy
Advocating for young people and increasing their resilience in an epidemic of loneliness.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 32 (170 total reports)
02.08.2023-08.08.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advocating for young people and increasing their resilience in an epidemic of loneliness.
This Week’s Top Links
08.08.2023
States seek to let teens as young as 14 serve booze in restaurants
https://apple.news/AhhaJSHUUTWOvBFpK7kVkAg
This is an issue we need to get in front of as soon as possible in order to advocate for young people. When I was younger—and homeless—I worked in the fields to support my life as a musician. It was hard and tiring work. But the type of work we are seeing in this article is vastly different, serving alcohol to intoxicated adults is not the realm of 14-year-olds. As conservative politicians become harsher about immigration, they are going to need to supplement their low-income labor market. Consequently, they are looking to adolescents and children. Some of the states that have already changed their labor laws surprise me. Look and see where your state lands in this critical issue.
07.08.2023
The Weaponization of Loneliness
https://apple.news/AcSuBizhzTUmWAKO_XPdUbw
The trend of loneliness as an epidemic is not new, but the weaponization of it is. This article, by Hilary Clinton, looks deeper into the issue and how loneliness is being used by malevolent forces to isolate and attack people. Loneliness benefits conspiracy-theorists and their fear-based agenda.
06.08.2023
Why ‘social prescribing’ is the new frontier in mental health care
https://apple.news/ATeNolZ43TQamnfbsuVbpgQ
Social Prescribing is a term reaching back to the mid-1980’s and is basically helping people expand their community. There are increasingly less vehicles for community involvement and—as we see above—the lack of community is being weaponized by some nefarious political and hate groups. It has always been the first step of a manipulator/abuser to isolate their victim(s). At one time, churches helped fill the community void, but many churches chose to retreat into theology and doctrine instead of community development and restoration. The mission of the outreach of Communities of Trust has always been to “connect kids to community and communities to kids.” A maxim of this program has been that, “prejudice can’t withstand relationship.” The more isolated our youth, the less healthy they are. There are concrete steps that adults can take to build loneliness resilience in young people and connect them to healthy communities around them. If this is not central to your advocacy of youth, it really needs to be. Communities of Trust is willing and available to consult and assist you in this endeavor.
05.08.2023
Putting Trump on the Couch
https://apple.news/AiY7nBTyJSiagWZMtctmV5w
I read this article and immediately purchased the book, The Death of a Great Man, by Psychiatrist and author, Peter D. Kramer. I now have bought it for several friends. To understand Trump and those who support him, this book is an invaluable aid. Please make it a best-seller.
04.08.2023
AP Psychology is now ‘effectively banned’ in Florida schools following the state’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, College Board says
It seems that I am shocked weekly by what the DeSantis regime in Florida is willing to do to undermine the future and education of their own children in order to promote himself and his political agenda. Fortunately, Robert Bigelow, the billionaire backer of the SuperPac behind DeSantis’ “Never Back Down” movement, has suggested that he would cut funding if DeSantis didn’t start “backing down.” Or, moderating his message. The effect has been evident in the last week of DeSantis’ campaign. What this reveals is what DeSantis would be willing to do if he had the money and remained unchecked.
03.08.2023
The Most Misunderstood Concept in Psychology
https://apple.news/A7KcvfNXjQ0KFSblITzCWiw
“Boundaries, Gaslighting, Trauma, Depression, and Narcissist,” these words are frequently used in common terminology today, often not grounded in their real meanings. In order to better respond to them, it is important to understand them. They are all on a behavioral spectrum and not always requiring treatment. Being able to identify when a behavior has become a disorder is critical for diagnosis and successful therapy.
02.08.2023
Conservative Political Rhetoric Now Has an Official Body Count
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a44704968/jama-study-republican-covid-deaths/
The ultimate human cost of conspiracy theorists is only now becoming apparent through research. As the article points out, it has an official body count and it is largely “red.” That is largely evident in the reddest states of the Union. If you live in one of the states mentioned in this article, you are more likely to be affected—or even die—because of conspiracy-based leaders like Trump, SuperPac-backed, politician, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Words have consequences and those consequences are only beginning to become scientifically apparent. The costs—in deaths—of Trump’s COVID denial are well-chronicled. Will they ever have ramifications?
This Week’s Links
08.08.2023
States seek to let teens as young as 14 serve booze in restaurants
https://apple.news/AhhaJSHUUTWOvBFpK7kVkAg
Saving Local News Would Pay for Itself
https://apple.news/Aodq_OtmTToy2ylepDHOcrw
The Commons: ‘To Live With a Serious Mental Illness Is to Be in a Constant Fight for Your Agency’
https://apple.news/ArXMUKdpyThefBTECBnUccQ
Signs of Autism in Girls: What to Look For and Why Autistic Girls Go Undiagnosed
https://apple.news/AIMTpD8B1QEyv5PdFzPQvjw
Advice | Getting silly with your kids is vital. Here’s how to get play into your day.
https://apple.news/AWQGfvY5cRt2veiycyoycjg
This tech company’s ‘chief parent officer’ works to keep kids safe online. 4 things she wants you to know
https://apple.news/Ak84w1VynTZaNjpfpRxqdxw
Catastrophizing: What it is and how to stop it
https://apple.news/A195hrEOnS_WOEtaFfsaf9g
Want to Stop Negative Thinking and Become More Positive? Science Suggests These 5 Mind Hacks
https://apple.news/AiysS4CqVSySECh_9pgbZLg
Parents Swear by These Anxiety Tents To Help Kids Relax—and They’re All on Sale
https://apple.news/AIbqCI0ReRX6UjAZwb8nLJQ
07.08.2023
The Weaponization of Loneliness
https://apple.news/AcSuBizhzTUmWAKO_XPdUbw
How We Learned to Be Lonely
https://apple.news/AVq4ziUlTSyuvdj_B8NX6iw
The real meaning of “gatekeeping” — and what most people misunderstand
https://apple.news/AP_L3hbPUTnW0n25Q8OzfXQ
A Defense of Humanity in the Age of AI
https://apple.news/APOrQsjbxTmOTHsHz1nTGgA
06.08.2023
Why ‘social prescribing’ is the new frontier in mental health care
https://apple.news/ATeNolZ43TQamnfbsuVbpgQ
What the Best Places in America Have in Common
https://apple.news/Az99w2J4aQ6eQeyDwOVtS1Q
How ‘gray rocking’ can protect you against narcissists
https://apple.news/AUo7qF9pPQwGDmC_5PtUA3w
One Good Thing: why getting curious about your emotions could help your mental health
https://apple.news/A6z3VMk4sQyuybhHz4uTE9A
How parents can shape a child’s future with small moments of joy
https://apple.news/AI1Y5C_vrSTWsRCp22Ko42g
05.08.2023
Putting Trump on the Couch
https://apple.news/AiY7nBTyJSiagWZMtctmV5w
04.08.2023
AP Psychology is now ‘effectively banned’ in Florida schools following the state’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, College Board says
Moms for Liberty says no to mental health care in schools, but it's Florida law
https://apple.news/ADaYI3hVCTG2pnAGVkeQHCA
Behind Florida’s slavery curriculum, a bigger question
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/2023/0803/Behind-Florida-s-slavery-curriculum-a-bigger-question
Why So Many Americans Have Stopped Going to Church
New study finds more effective way to coach and inspire
The Power Of Teaching Kids The 'Opposite Compliment' Method To Stop Bullying
https://www.yourtango.com/self/power-teaching-kids-opposite-compliment-method-stop-bullying
How To Make Better Decisions In Uncertain Times
https://www.fatherly.com/life/how-to-make-better-decisions-in-uncertain-times-peter-atwater
Louisiana’s Public Schools Must Now Display ‘In God We Trust’ In Classrooms
03.08.2023
The Most Misunderstood Concept in Psychology
https://apple.news/A7KcvfNXjQ0KFSblITzCWiw
The Power of Mindfully Embracing Positive Experiences
How to Have the Courage to Grow
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wander-woman/202307/how-to-have-the-courage-to-grow
This 3-Word Phrase Helps You Influence People and Get What You Want, According to Wharton Psychologist Adam Grant
Psychologist explains why everyone feels exhausted right now and it makes so much sense
02.08.2023
Conservative Political Rhetoric Now Has an Official Body Count
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a44704968/jama-study-republican-covid-deaths/
Abortion Laws Affect Health in More Ways Than You Think
https://www.prevention.com/health/a44193752/anti-abortion-aftershocks/
Leprosy warning issued by CDC for people traveling in Florida
Helping Your Child with Autism Thrive
Youth Advocacy
Advocating for young people and preparing them to grow agency and diminish anxiety.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 31 (169 total reports)
26.07.2023-01.08.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advocating for young people and preparing them to grow agency and diminish anxiety.
This Week’s Top Links
01.08.2023
12 Hard Truths of Psychology and Life from Mind Essentials
https://chameleonmemes.com/12-hard-truths-of-psychology-and-life-from-mind-essentials/
These byte-sized posters of “hard truths” are worth reviewing. I would suggest sharing them at a family gathering or staff meeting (if you’re in a facility that serves people). Ask people which are their favorites, which ones made them comfortable/uncomfortable and if they can identify the reasons.
30.07.2023
‘I’m not wanted’: Florida universities hit by brain drain as academics flee
https://apple.news/ALfJzoqppSCeoPPE7sHeVPQ
Florida is looking at starting the year with a 20-30% shortage of professors, hmm… wonder why Gov. DeSantis? Could it be related to your (and the GOP’s) attack on truth? In some locations, where GOP conservatives have been unable to ban books, they are defunding their libraries. This is simply child abuse. Children from these places will be unable to thrive in a diverse world. They will be laughingstocks.
29.07.2023
Opinion: SMU researchers aim to make learning playful
https://apple.news/AY8tyIO5UShiosM18GG3Pcw
“Play is the work of children,” said Child Psychologist, Jean Piaget. We need to find everything we can to help make learning playful. It will both increase retention and expand creativity.
28.07.2023
Houston Independent School District Turning Libraries Into Discipline Centers And Getting Rid Of Librarians At 28 Campuses
https://apple.news/A8SvM-3K8QB2OKtsh7gqnZg
To quote Journalist, Rayna Reid Rayford, in this article, “In a bizarre move for a district trying to ‘improve student reading levels, which lag behind state and national averages,’ Houston Independent School District (HISD) is eliminating ‘dedicated librarians at 28 underperforming schools,’ a decision that will go into effect this fall.’” The reason conservatives rarely understand human behavior is because their mindset is often fear-based and control-centered. Humans do not initiate lasting change based upon someone else’s need for control. They grow and change because of their own need for engagement.
27.07.2023
Are You Plagued by the Feeling That Everyone Used to Be Nicer?
https://apple.news/AsRkyfZoxQry4bqXwUy4FYg
This article is inspiring and needed. The Atlantic always does great in-depth and well-research articles. The MAGA-RIght is trying to convince us that there is a “fantasy time” we a return to that everyone was nice and America was Great. What they don’t want to share is that “America was great” for straight Anglos. That America was nicer is part of the conspiracy cult and social media and doesn’t bear up to facts. Read this article if you disagree (or if you agree and want insights to support your beliefs).
26.07.2023
14 Habits of People Who Never (or Rarely) Get Anxious
https://parade.com/living/habits-of-people-who-never-get-anxious-according-to-therapists
This article is chockfull of ideas for keeping anxiety at bay. As we all know, telling someone to “stop being anxious,” only makes people more anxious. But creating habits of anxiety reduction is a practical strategy for protecting your well-being. Read this article with someone who is prone towards anxiety and ask them if any of the strategies would be worth pursuing. Let them come up with the strategies and use you as a sounding board.
This Week’s Links
01.07.2023
12 Hard Truths of Psychology and Life from Mind Essentials
https://chameleonmemes.com/12-hard-truths-of-psychology-and-life-from-mind-essentials/
On Slavery: Gov. DeSantis and his crack education team are all about facts
How to Cultivate a Creativity Habit
https://killerinnovations.com/how-to-cultivate-a-creativity-habit/
Oh Good – This Is How Many Hugs We Actually Need A Day
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/how-many-hugs-do-we-need-a-day_uk_64c8db6be4b021e2f2957950
30.07.2023
‘I’m not wanted’: Florida universities hit by brain drain as academics flee
https://apple.news/ALfJzoqppSCeoPPE7sHeVPQ
Struggling With Difficult Emotions? Try These Three Movements
https://apple.news/AzGO1efnHQhCaxU0vFq-MXw
This Ivy League researcher says spirituality is good for our mental health
https://apple.news/A_ogw0PaITI-T1i1PlsgnuA
Feeling exhausted by life? Consider rebooting your life with a sabbath day of rest
https://apple.news/A5YDsiuW6SXKWGO2f1MCPyw
29.07.2023
Opinion: SMU researchers aim to make learning playful
https://apple.news/AY8tyIO5UShiosM18GG3Pcw
The Root Cause of the Homelessness Crisis
https://apple.news/AnjfhqzAeSo2uytqAy7bklA
Sharing photos of your kids? Maybe not after you watch this deepfake ad
https://apple.news/AG2G6YwHvTAeQyiiKhykcJQ
Millions of Americans Have Stopped Attending Church. What Will Bring Them Back?
https://apple.news/ABfA5rw5iQg22n9GmiSGwWg
28.07.2023
Houston Independent School District Turning Libraries Into Discipline Centers And Getting Rid Of Librarians At 28 Campuses
https://apple.news/A8SvM-3K8QB2OKtsh7gqnZg
In a bizarre move for a district trying to “improve student reading levels, which lag behind state and national averages,” Houston Independent School District (HISD) is eliminating “dedicated librarians at 28 underperforming schools,” a decision that will go into effect this fall.
Texas family scrambles after their disabled child loses Medicaid
https://apple.news/A3WScNXLfScion7SDyRau3g
Feeling nostalgic? Your brain is hardwired to crave it
https://apple.news/AJ8NbByWlQKWTspflzPxSWA
27.07.2023
Are You Plagued by the Feeling That Everyone Used to Be Nicer?
https://apple.news/AsRkyfZoxQry4bqXwUy4FYg
26.07.2023
14 Habits of People Who Never (or Rarely) Get Anxious
https://parade.com/living/habits-of-people-who-never-get-anxious-according-to-therapists
I've been a therapist for 10 years. Here are 9 things people want most in life—and how to get them
https://apple.news/Asj7QsoBWQzyOBQrUo7dbyQ
Want to Be Remarkably Persuasive? Harvard Research Shows Using 1 Word Dramatically Increases Agreement, Cooperation, and Buy-in
Youth Advocacy
Advocating for young people and preparing them to recognize manipulative behaviors.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 30 (168 total reports)
19.07.2023-25.07.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advocating for young people and preparing them to recognize manipulative behaviors.
This Week’s Top Links
25.07.2023
The American Evangelical Church Is in Crisis. There’s Only One Way Out.
https://apple.news/AT12NgRW2SgWnBb-zCXaXvg
This article has too many insights to go unread. Whether you are religious or non-religious, there are insights here that apply to conservatism as well as evangelism; Protestant or Catholic. The primary key is the unholy (and impossible) struggle to return to a past that really didn’t exist. “Happy Days” wasn’t a reality show and it never really addressed racism in America at that time. Archaic and wishful thinking that we can return to a past, that really is a fairy tale, is at the heart of many neo-conservative movements; religious and otherwise. This clinging to false beliefs has relevant impact on ideologies old and new. As the author, Russell Moore states, “Denominations that are glacially slow to recognize documented sexual-abuse cover-ups are lightning quick to expel congregations they find to be too affirming of women’s leadership.”
I side with the author in that while abandoning church, did we also abandon an important source of community? Sadly, many churches played a major part in this exit, striving to be centers of theology and dogma rather than developers of relationship and community.
24.07.2023
Affirmative Action for rich kids: It's more than just legacy admissions
The Ultra-Conservative majority of the Supreme Court would like us to believe we live in a “Post-Racist” society (as would some Conservative Governors), but their retelling of history is woefully inaccurate while causing substantial damage to the fabric of the US. Even, at times, against the wishes of the majority of the people it purports to represent.
23.07.2023
The Best Leaders Use These 4 Phrases When Others Try to Manipulate Them, According to a Clinical Psychologist
I found the four phrases in this article not only useful for business leadership, but also for anyone who has been “gaslighted” by another. If you are working with young people, these phrases can be helpful for them in two ways: When others attempt to manipulate them and when manipulating language or behaviors sneak into their everyday lives.
22.07.2023
A mom was billed $102,000 for her son’s hospital stay. It shows everything that can go wrong in American health care
https://fortune.com/well/2023/07/21/hospital-bill-102000-mental-health-care-debt/
This is a real indictment of a health care system that doesn’t support its population. This story of a mother whose son needed mental therapy is all too common, not only in the US, but in other countries where parents of mentally struggling youth live too.
21.07.2023
Florida Has Lost It: Mandates Teaching Kids “Blacks Benefitted From Slavery”
https://allhiphop.com/opinion/florida-sucks/
What Florida is insisting on teaching young people is akin to child abuse. These young people will be ill-prepared for the future in a diverse world. Creating curricula to make yourself feel more comfortable with an abhorrent past is criminal. History—in fact, all education—is not supposed to make us more cozy. It is supposed to engage a generation to build a better future. Young people will not be able to create that better future if we lie to them about the past.
20.07.2023
Meganets: How Digital Forces Beyond Our Control Commandeer Our Daily Lives and Inner Realities
I included this article because I liked the term, “Meganets.” Technology experts and others are concerned the major abuse of Information Technology will be in unchecked “mega truths” ensnaring people with their conspiracy theories. Purveyors of this abuse include not only Donald Trump in his election lies, but also the Conservative GOP’s favorite candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr..
19.07.2023
Read Obama’s Powerful Open Letter to Librarians Amid Book Bans
Sometimes the voices of past Presidents become more insightful once they leave office. That was certainly the case with Past President and World Statesman, Jimmy Carter. Freed from the weights of political application, many past presidents are able to use their power rather than their authority to support causes that truly mattered to them. To Jimmy Carter, it has been homelessness, to George Bush, Jr. it is his version of “Compassionate Conservatism,” to Barack Obama, it is the strengthening of Democracy and to Donald Trump, it continues to be himself.
This Week’s Links
25.07.2023
The American Evangelical Church Is in Crisis. There’s Only One Way Out.
https://apple.news/AT12NgRW2SgWnBb-zCXaXvg
To Solve the LGBTQ Youth Mental Health Crisis, Our Research Must Be More Nuanced
https://apple.news/AEl_DccmeQiygCh736i5Tsg
40% of incarcerated people in Mexico have not been tried, data shows
https://apple.news/AYra7zb_6RfabtLniGIlAPQ
24.07.2023
Affirmative Action for rich kids: It's more than just legacy admissions
AI Isn't the Problem. It's How We Use It, Especially in Schools (Opinion)
The Psychology of Reading
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychology-yesterday/202307/the-psychology-of-reading
Stay Woke
https://aframnews.com/stay-woke/
23.07.2023
The Best Leaders Use These 4 Phrases When Others Try to Manipulate Them, According to a Clinical Psychologist
The Republican war on colleges
https://www.axios.com/2023/07/23/trump-desantis-colleges-universities
Won’t Someone Please Think of the Children? Seventy-Five Years on the Battlefield of Books for Kids
https://journals.ala.org/index.php/cal/article/view/6075/7813
The Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action decision perpetuates the myth of a “post-racial” society
Want to quickly spot idiots? Here are five foolproof red flags
https://apple.news/AUhj4f-cZSQq1eNxXHkm7uw
A first-of-its-kind abortion lawsuit just held hearings. Here’s what you need to know.
https://apple.news/At4yBqQEpTSOixjYZt72O0g
5 Unexpected Things Happy People Have in Their Homes
https://apple.news/AHUfnG0lpQzS9O_ZcKNa6qQ
22.07.2023
A mom was billed $102,000 for her son’s hospital stay. It shows everything that can go wrong in American health care
https://fortune.com/well/2023/07/21/hospital-bill-102000-mental-health-care-debt/
‘They insult us': Harris hits DeSantis over Florida’s new U.S. history standards
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/21/harris-desantis-florida-history-standards-00107569
Pete Buttigieg calls the GOP obsession with LGBTQ+ people “maddening”
Mom shares 'whatever makes you happy' hour concept for kids, gets lauded by parents
https://scoop.upworthy.com/mom-shares-whatever-makes-you-happy-hour-concept-for-kids-and-gets-lauded
21.07.2023
Florida Has Lost It: Mandates Teaching Kids “Blacks Benefitted From Slavery”
https://allhiphop.com/opinion/florida-sucks/
America’s Education System Is a Mess, and It’s Students Who Are Paying the Price
The qualities to teach your kids that are more important than exam results
Therapist shares 15 ways children communicate that they have anxiety and parents are beyond thankful
20.07.2023
Meganets: How Digital Forces Beyond Our Control Commandeer Our Daily Lives and Inner Realities
The New Rules For Resisting Mind Control And Media Manipulation
A psychologist explains 5 ways to tell someone is biased
https://www.fastcompany.com/90925597/a-psychologist-explains-5-ways-to-tell-someone-is-biased
Do You Do Too Much for Others?
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cop-doc/202307/do-you-do-too-much-for-others-0
19.07.2023
Read Obama’s Powerful Open Letter to Librarians Amid Book Bans
Ta-Nehisi Coates crashes a school board meeting discussing the banning of his book (video)
What Happened When Students Led Fights to Reverse Book Bans
7 everyday ways to foster children's math and literacy skills to avoid 'summer slide' learning loss
Youth Advocacy
Focus on children feeling safe and accepted and the academics will follow—not the other way around.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 29 (167 total reports)
12.07.2023-19.07.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Focus on children feeling safe and accepted and the academics will follow—not the other way around.
This Week’s Top Links
19.07.2023
Research: Schools Prioritizing Social-Emotional Learning See Big Academic Gains
High achieving academics come from schools where children feel safe and a sense of belonging. Research from multiple schools in Chicago prove that children who don’t feel safe and accepted, don’t (can’t) learn.
17.07.2023
Why am I online? Research shows it's often about managing emotions
https://theconversation.com/why-am-i-online-research-shows-its-often-about-managing-emotions-208483
This is a basic question, but a good question to ask ourselves and help our children ask themselves when they are online. “Why am I online right now?” It is interesting to see what the research says prompts most people to be online; it isn’t research.
16.07.2023
Raising successful kids might mean changing your definition of what that means
https://fortune.com/well/2023/07/16/how-to-raise-successful-kids-redefine-success/
It is critical to define what we call success, because if it is defined by purely monetary or authoritative terminology, those whom we would define successful are some of the least ethical people in the world today. If we expanded the term to include living a meaningful or influential life, the concept would change. But it is up to adults to wrestle with that concept and create curricula that supports it.
15.07.2023
How I’m Following the Montessori Method With My Toddler This Summer
https://theeverymom.com/montessori-summer-activities/
Dr. Marie Montessori is arguably the most important educator of the modern world. Her pedagogy is based in experience and wonder as well as learning by teaching. Applying these principles at home (group home or youth facility) will radically change the learning environment amongst students and staff.
14.07.2023
7 Empowering Tools for Young Leaders
https://apple.news/As-U7iX_9TjOIIvQnz_e2Pw
This article articulates, “The Amare Way,” as a tool for decision-making. It is worth discovering and sharing with others to create a leadership methodology in your institution, school or home, but also in the strategies we coach young people to use in making difficult decisions.
13.07.2023
Our Communities Can Only Be as Strong as Our Public Schools
https://www.the74million.org/article/our-communities-can-only-be-as-strong-as-our-public-schools/
It is time we stop focusing on what religious conservatives and their political hacks want for education and start focusing on what children will need to be able to live meaningful lives in a global economy facing shortages, climate extremes, misinformation, and authoritarianism.
12.07.2023
Why adults should read children's books
Reading children’s books is often an empathetic experience that touches the soul and opens the mind. I think of how my own life has been influenced by such books as “The Little Prince,” “The Giving Tree,” and “Where the Wild Things Are.” Of course, the greatest fun is in sharing them with a child. But reading these books and being enveloped by the author and artist’s imagination is a mindful way to deep, personal growth.
This Week’s Links
19.07.2023
Research: Schools Prioritizing Social-Emotional Learning See Big Academic Gains
Goodbye, Perfect: How to Stop Pleasing, Proving, and Pushing for Others… and Live For Yourself
No, You Don’t Have to Be Perfect. These 5 Books Explain Why
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/no-dont-perfect-5-books-explain/43772/
Cracking the Secret to Genuine Confidence
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/lifes-work/202307/cracking-the-secret-to-genuine-confidence
18.07.2023
What the parents' rights debate misses: the kids' right to learn to be free thinkers
https://apple.news/AsE1h6ARLTaCFCSsru3yasw
Trans kids are already at risk of suicide. How will new rules in Texas affect them?
https://apple.news/Aj_q5ULThR8-62LH8b5vO-Q
17.07.2023
Why am I online? Research shows it's often about managing emotions
https://theconversation.com/why-am-i-online-research-shows-its-often-about-managing-emotions-208483
When Arresting Librarians Is Not Enough For Republicans…
https://crooksandliars.com/2023/07/when-arresting-librarians-not-enough
GOP Advances Education Cuts That Could Remove 220,000 Teachers from Classrooms
16.07.2023
Raising successful kids might mean changing your definition of what that means
https://fortune.com/well/2023/07/16/how-to-raise-successful-kids-redefine-success/
How To Get Kids To Read For Fun
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2023/07/15/how-to-get-kids-to-read-for-fun/
15.07.2023
How I’m Following the Montessori Method With My Toddler This Summer
https://theeverymom.com/montessori-summer-activities/
The 2023 Comedy Pet Photography awards – in pictures
https://apple.news/AjSRM914DTPi5-ZvZ29EV6g
The Humanities Are Worth Fighting For
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-humanities-are-worth-fighting-for/
The 10 Best Books to Help You Take Control of Your Anxiety
https://www.verywellhealth.com/best-books-for-anxiety-7373428
14.07.2023
7 Empowering Tools for Young Leaders
https://apple.news/As-U7iX_9TjOIIvQnz_e2Pw
The Amare Way
7 Quotes by Albert Camus That Will Change The Way You Think About Life and Art
The Simple Power of Communicating with Kindness
https://apple.news/AwKIBGmcJMGmrGpvAQCKamQ
The Power of Imagination In Science
https://medium.com/illumination/the-power-of-imagination-in-science-fd8c12eda979
The Hidden Learning (Theories) of Stories
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psyched/202307/the-hidden-learning-theories-of-stories
Let Me Briefly Remind You 3 Reasons Why You Should Think Before You Speak
Four Ways to Make Grief More Bearable
https://apple.news/ASdICqxZ7TrmDT1YAZVbrRQ
Reader’s Digest Releases Best 100 Books of All Time List
https://bookriot.com/readers-digest-best-100-books/
13.07.2023
Our Communities Can Only Be as Strong as Our Public Schools
https://www.the74million.org/article/our-communities-can-only-be-as-strong-as-our-public-schools/
7 Quotes by Albert Camus That Will Change The Way You Think About Life and Art
7 Empowering Tools for Young Leaders
https://apple.news/As-U7iX_9TjOIIvQnz_e2Pw
The Amare Way
This Study Shows That People With ADHD Are More Likely to Be Entrepreneurs
https://apple.news/AcwhfiNbbSg6gx84--naSYw
The Simple Power of Communicating with Kindness
https://apple.news/AwKIBGmcJMGmrGpvAQCKamQ
11 Effective Strategies To Deal With Difficult People At Work
https://www.yourtango.com/self/how-to-handle-difficult-people-work
House Republicans attach anti-LGBTQ provisions to appropriations bills
This therapist and mom posted a viral video about the different ways kids express anxiety—and it is SPOT ON
https://www.mother.ly/news/viral-trending/spotting-anxiety-in-kids-tiktok/
David French: Christian right re-embracing authoritarianism of previous eras
12.07.2023
Why adults should read children's books
Leadership soft skills: Cultivating a human-centric company culture
https://hospitalityinsights.ehl.edu/leadership-soft-skills-human-centric-company-culture
Thinking Wrong: How to Trick our Brains into Being More Innovative
https://thoughtsparks.substack.com/p/thinking-wrong-how-to-trick-our-brains
Youth Advocacy
The goal of education is wonder, the importance of supporting unpaid caregivers, and the critical role of reading to our children are all a part of this week’s review.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 28 (166 total reports)
11.05.2023-11.07.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
The goal of education is wonder, the importance of supporting unpaid caregivers, and the critical role of reading to our children are all a part of this week’s review.
This Week’s Top Links
11.07.2023
How Trauma Can Affect Your Window of Tolerance
https://www.verywellmind.com/window-of-tolerance-7553021
Trauma is something I have read about and studied for years, even decades now, in my work with adults and children. Still, there is always something new and interesting when I dig in deeper. I appreciated this article for it’s special emphasis on the hyperarousal and hypoarousal windows of tolerance linked to trauma. If you know of someone who has unresolved childhood adversity resulting in a reduced window of tolerance, this is a good article to review.
10.07.2023
Emotionally Intelligent People Use a Brilliant 4-Word Phrase to Be Present, Remember More, and Learn From Every Moment
https://apple.news/Ab0jiHhKLRVS-46PR7XNNJQ
I usually gloss over articles that have titles like, “Brilliant 4-Word Phrase,” but I read through this article and did, indeed, find the phrase brilliant. It would make for a good mantra, if you don’t already have one and is linked to the Japanese mindfulness concept of Ichigo Ichie.
09.07.2023
One in five US employees serves as an unpaid caregiver
https://apple.news/AXBNts9kGTkC6qeGl1Ltc0w
This is yet another signal of the importance of considering a Basic Living Wage. In areas where this program has been applied it has been shown to improve wellness in the population and enhance the economy. Conservatives would like us to believe that a program like this would feed a laziness among people and reward them for not working. But the truth is it just makes sense and even more sense given the immigration policies pushed by the right. The only ones who do NOT want a program like this are the richest of the rich who fear having to pay their fair share of taxes and even lose their privileged status as non-payers. Their fear is also based on losing a population-base that wouldn’t be slave-laborers working for non-living wages for their corporations. Research does not support the conservative bias against these programs and whoever thinks that unpaid caregivers don’t work hard has never had to do the actual work.
08.07.2023
Poverty is linked to poorer brain development – but reading can help counteract it
No doubt the strongest tool in our toolbox for preparing young people for a healthy adulthood is assisting caregivers to lavish children with reading time. Rather than banning reading times in libraries we should be increasing funds to make them happen. Who benefits from less reading time for our children?
07.07.2023
How to Be More Alive: Hermann Hesse on Wonder and the Proper Aim of Education
https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/07/06/hermann-hesse-wonder-butterflies/
I’m an avid fan or Hermann Hesse and have devoured his writings since my teenage years. I was homeless from 16 to 25 and lived primarily in bus stations as I traveled across the US. Reading Siddhartha was as inspiring to me as reading JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I even visited his childhood home in Calw, Germany. Hesse is the grandfather of Servant Leadership and the depths of his writings could be a lifelong endeavor for some.
06.07.2023
Recovery high school provides ‘accountability, safe space’ amid rising drug use
https://apple.news/A25TSyUpGRYWssHt2kiy7JA
Recovery High Schools offer the most comprehensive approach to educating young people today. I spent the thirty years of my career working in and consulting with such schools and some of my best life-experiences occurred within them. I found the teachers and administrators to be extra mindful of the needs of the young people, dedicated to both their education, but also their well-being. With the education system in recovery globally (post-COVID) and often lost for direction, I could heartily recommend the standards of recovery high schools sit at the heart of creating a newly imagined education model.
05.07.2023
Frederick Douglass’ ‘July Fourth’ Speech Continues To Reveal America’s Hypocrisy Following Supreme Court’s Discriminatory Rulings
The utter crassness and blatant racism of this bought-and-paid-for Supreme Court has set the United States back a hundred plus years. It is no longer a judicial branch of the government as designed by the framers of the Constitution. It is a Conservative-Christian, Republican policy-setting tool of the wealthy. Its rulings in women’s rights, higher learning, LGBTQ rights and sheltering hate speech have given both a black eye and a crippled leg to the US globally. Many of the justices should have decals like Formula One Race Cars marking who have bought them and paid for their decisions.
This Week’s Links
11.07.2023
How Trauma Can Affect Your Window of Tolerance
https://www.verywellmind.com/window-of-tolerance-7553021
Four steps to free yourself from resentment
https://apple.news/A9fKlLLUYR7WISdJu-oE12Q
Dopamine, serotonin and more: The chemicals that make us feel happy and how they work
https://apple.news/AMsA-yi_-QlGARerHSNMl6g
Teachers Aren’t the Solution to America’s Literacy Crisis—Parents Are
The Mental Health Benefits of Forgiveness
Children of highly religious mothers are more likely to internalize their problems, study finds
10.07.2023
Emotionally Intelligent People Use a Brilliant 4-Word Phrase to Be Present, Remember More, and Learn From Every Moment
https://apple.news/Ab0jiHhKLRVS-46PR7XNNJQ
How 'Arthur' masterfully taught kids about PTSD and 9/11
https://boingboing.net/2023/07/10/how-arthur-masterfully-taught-kids-about-ptsd-and-9-11.html
Instead of banning AI, schools should use it to enhance learning
09.07.2023
One in five US employees serves as an unpaid caregiver
https://apple.news/AXBNts9kGTkC6qeGl1Ltc0w
Why We Achieve
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anxiety-in-high-achievers/202307/why-we-achieve
‘Democracy is at risk’: inside the fight for supreme court reform
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/jul/09/supreme-court-reform-conservative-justices
‘We should all be viewing this as a five-alarm fire’: Threat of disinformation escalates ahead of 2024
This is the one skill you need to improve right now, no matter what job you’re in
08.07.2023
Poverty is linked to poorer brain development – but reading can help counteract it
The Neuroscience of Nurturing
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-gift-of-adhd/202307/the-neuroscience-of-nurturing
07.07.2023
How to Be More Alive: Hermann Hesse on Wonder and the Proper Aim of Education
https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/07/06/hermann-hesse-wonder-butterflies/
The gravitational pull of supervising kids all the time
https://apple.news/Ai38nEAGmTcepJdnipCsycA
06.07.2023
Recovery high school provides ‘accountability, safe space’ amid rising drug use
https://apple.news/A25TSyUpGRYWssHt2kiy7JA
Teachers, Try This: Use Restorative Justice to Solve Student Conflicts
Why Letting Your Kids Be Bored is Actually a Gift
https://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/2799715/boredom-good-for-kids/
Emotionally Intelligent People Use These 4 Words When They Meet People They Don't Remember Meeting (But Who Remember Meeting Them)
05.07.2023
Frederick Douglass’ ‘July Fourth’ Speech Continues To Reveal America’s Hypocrisy Following Supreme Court’s Discriminatory Rulings
Reimagining student engagement as a continuum of learning behaviors
The Art of Wabi-Sabi: How to Embrace Imperfection
https://thetaoist.online/the-art-of-wabi-sabi-how-to-embrace-imperfection-9c3a530ab100
This Year I'm Just Not In the Mood for Life, Liberty, and All That
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a44430715/independence-day-not-in-the-mood/
Dante’s “Divine Comedy” isn’t only about religion. It’s a political statement.
https://bigthink.com/high-culture/dante-divine-comedy-italy/
Disinformation Researchers Lament 'Chilling' US Legal Campaign
https://www.barrons.com/news/disinformation-researchers-lament-chilling-us-legal-campaign-675c946
Youth Advocacy
Growing from conflict, moving past hubris and arrogance in our politics and media, creating a society of open-mindedness and visceral compassion for our children.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 10 (164 total reports)
28.06.2023-04.07.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Growing from conflict, moving past hubris and arrogance in our politics and media, creating a society of open-mindedness and visceral compassion for our children.
This Week’s Top Links
04.07.2023
How to see conflict as a benefit
https://corp.smartbrief.com/original/2023/07/how-to-see-conflict-as-a-benefit
Seeing conflict as an opportunity for personal and/or relational growth requires an open mindset and it doesn’t have to be a shared approach. A close-minded person can make conflict very difficult, but not impossible. If even one of the parties sees the disagreement as a way to expand their understanding, they can make a difference in the relational balance. This article does a good job at examining the necessary aspects of making conflict beneficial at home, in the workplace, and personally (after all, we all have inner conflicts we could grow from).
03.07.2023
The Triumph of the Age of the Idiot
https://eand.co/the-triumph-of-the-age-of-the-idiot-85c3ede7fa32
I wouldn’t go so far as to admit the “idiots” have triumphed, but there are certainly a lot of unethical and unjust people in places of power. This isn’t new, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote his “theory of stupidity” ten years after Hitler came to power. Of course, theories of Narcissists being drawn to positions of power date back much farther than that, Aristotle spoke eloquently about this in his book, Rhetoric, however the Greeks called it, “Hubris.” Dating farther back, Solomon writes in Proverbs, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom [Proverbs 11:2].”
02.07.2023
Compassion Is More Than Niceness
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/soul-console/202307/compassion-is-more-than-niceness
The word for Compassion in Greek is almost gross, it means that your stomach turns to water. When compassionate people see injustice it hits them on a visceral level. They “Have to Act.” Compassion without action is simply niceness, it is akin to “feeling sorry” for someone, which is another form of victimization. Almost like being lost in a forest, the “kind person” consistently goes in a circle believing they’re getting somewhere. They might feel exhausted, but it’s really just emotional depletion and nothing useful has been accomplished.
01.07.2023
Here’s What Happened After Affirmative Action Ended In These 4 States
The research doesn’t bear out the decision of the Supreme Court to end Affirmative Action, higher learning still remains largely a whites-only privilege. Wealthy white families send wealthy white children to the most exclusive institutions and they, in turn, become wealthier white families. Conservative politicians (which includes a number of the Republican-Appointed Justices) have a reason to fear higher education. The more education a person has, the more likely they are to vote liberal. Keeping education away from minorities and “WOKE” books away from children is part of a historic strategy for autocrats to retain power.
30.06.2023
Around 30,000 prisoners soon to be eligible for free college with Pell Grant expansion
https://apple.news/ALxz26VrMSJG9ILSr7EtR_Q
When I come across people who don’t think that prisons should be used to enhance the lives of inmates, I like to remind them that the majority of people in prisons will be their neighbors again one day. Prisons are not vacuums, they are institutions of learning, but often the learning is about improving criminal techniques or expanding criminal connections. Introducing education to prisoners addresses both of those issues and has been proven to lower recidivism.
29.06.2023
Study finds link between extracurricular arts activities and improved grades
This is one of many studies that should lead us to move from STEM-Based curricula to STEAM based ones. Personally, I don’t think the arts should be extracurricular. It should be an imbedded part of education, not something offered at a family’s expense or something that a child needs to do at 0700 in the morning before school begins. The benefits are immense and arts and music have been proven to complement and deepen learning.
28.06.2023
Reading for fun linked to cognitive performance and mental wellbeing in children
Children learn to love to read because someone they loved read to them. It is not reading to learn, it is reading to relate, reading to love, reading for the sheer pleasure of reading; no agenda, no point other than to enjoy the moment and feel loved in it. In short, reading for fun. We should do everything we can to open our libraries for sheer fun reading experiences.
This Week’s Links
04.07.2023
How to see conflict as a benefit
https://corp.smartbrief.com/original/2023/07/how-to-see-conflict-as-a-benefit
When Unrealistic Expectations Become Resentments
The Supreme Court Has Proven Itself Illegitimate. It's a Rubber Stamp on Extremism | Opinion
03.07.2023
The Triumph of the Age of the Idiot
https://eand.co/the-triumph-of-the-age-of-the-idiot-85c3ede7fa32
MIST Test Reveals Troubling Reality: Younger Adults More Susceptible to Fake News
Bisexuality has nearly quadrupled in the U.S.
https://bigthink.com/the-present/bisexuality-nearly-quadruples-us/
AOC: Supreme Court Rulings Show 'Creep Towards Authoritarianism'
02.07.2023
Compassion Is More Than Niceness
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/soul-console/202307/compassion-is-more-than-niceness
Highly sensitive person: What it is, traits, signs you are one
https://apple.news/Ak1fHk99dSoqJgeJEBFZvNg
Why is America not the lawless, gun-free, socialist wasteland Republicans warned us about?
‘Who are you trying to help?’: Buttigieg slams DeSantis over LGBTQ-focused ad
https://apple.news/AQsxjuUV4TDK6TcUlbJMGJg
01.07.2023
Here’s What Happened After Affirmative Action Ended In These 4 States
Here's what happened when affirmative action ended at California public colleges
Adorable Story Behind School's 'Bench Of Friends' Will Make Your Eyes Dribble
https://apple.news/AHnLEHRQSQ3akmG8UyxnF5w
8 Signs of Emotional Maturity
https://www.verywellmind.com/signs-of-emotional-maturity-7553316
The Power of Saying No: The New Science of How to Say No that Puts You in Charge of Your Life
One Thing GOP Presidential Candidates Agree On: Marginalized Americans Should Suffer
30.06.2023
Around 30,000 prisoners soon to be eligible for free college with Pell Grant expansion
https://apple.news/ALxz26VrMSJG9ILSr7EtR_Q
How to Give Students More Agency in Class Without Losing Control
Neuroscience Says 3 Simple Approaches Can Help You Live a Happier, More Successful Life
https://apple.news/AyBRXTkiWTJOFtar8jIq7uQ
Measuring Mastery, Not Seat Time: Here's How Schools Can Make It Work
29.06.2023
Study finds link between extracurricular arts activities and improved grades
Childhood Reading Habits Boost Brain and Mental Health in Teens
https://neurosciencenews.com/child-reading-teen-mental-health-23545/
28.06.2023
Reading for fun linked to cognitive performance and mental wellbeing in children
Childhood Poverty's Impact: Reshaping the Brain's Communication Pathways - Neuroscience News
https://neurosciencenews.com/white-matter-child-poverty-23536/
What Parents Need to Know About Teen Suicide
https://www.parents.com/teen-suicide-what-parents-need-to-know-7552788
Teacher turnover and Burnout
9 big ideas to bolster the teaching profession and boost student learning
https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/6/28/23775695/teacher-turnover-morale-crisis-solutions-pay-support
Youth Advocacy
Diversity and freedom of choice are being branded as Anti-American by Far Right authoritarians creating their own fear-based plots in democracies around the world. At stake; the lives of many young people.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 09 (163 total reports)
21.06.2023-27.06.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Diversity and freedom of choice are being branded as Anti-American by Far Right authoritarians creating their own fear-based plots in democracies around the world. At stake; the lives of many young people.
This Week’s Top Links
27.06.2023
Attacks on queer & trans rights are a dire sign for democracy
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/06/attacks-on-queer-trans-rights-are-a-dire-sign-for-democracy/
If we looked at the high rates of suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, we might begin to see that the MAGA Right’s focus on destroying WOKE and attacking laws protecting decisions made by trans youth, their parents and medical professionals is akin to child abuse. It is not hyperbole when Montana Representative Zooey Zephyr says her colleagues voting for laws restricting gender-affirming care have blood on their hands. Legally attacking freedom of choice is not the “American Way,” nor is it patriotic. It is authoritarian and a tactic used historically by multiple dictators in creating the fear that brought them to power.
26.06.2023
It doesn’t matter if a girl identified as a cat (she didn’t). The issue is how post-truth politics exploits it
https://apple.news/AtTrz1hy1RgGFpouYC6pvQg
This article nails the real problem in politics and the media today, the exploitation of conspiracy theories, one politician (Robert Kennedy, Jr.) is building his entire platform on promoting conspiracy-based fears. It’s clear that his pseudo-run for president is a right-wing GOP effort to divide the Democratic vote. Like many MAGA Republicans and the GOP, they have no platform beyond the promotion of fear and scarcity. Their intent is not to govern, but to divide and destroy democracy for autocrats.
25.06.2023
Disbelief, anger among relatives of Greek shipwreck victims as millions spent on Titan rescue effort
https://apple.news/AhBhABjxlSmOE52BR_J0z7A
I would be remiss this week, if I didn’t include something about the Greek Shipwreck that claimed over 80 lives and all the the women and children on board. The lack of resources and media attention as the media focused on the tragedy of the Titan Submersible. No doubt both are tragic. But the lack of attention and resources committed to solving the Immigration issue around the globe is a clear sign of injustice.
24.06.2023
How "Cognitive Defusion" Can Help With Anxiety
The concept behind this article became the “discussion of the week” between my wife and I at our little Yucatan home, Casa Contenta. We thought of the power of Cognitive Defusion for the many friends we have suffering from anxiety. Perhaps your family (or staff) can discuss this concept and brainstorm about ways to help people who are anxious implement mechanisms of cognitive defusion.
23.06.2023
'Anti-Dopamine Parenting' Can Reduce Or Redirect Kids' Cravings
https://www.scarymommy.com/parenting/anti-dopamine-parenting
This concept, Anti-Dopamine Parenting,” is currently in the news a great deal as researchers examine the draw of eDevices and Social Media. Adults and children in our society seem to be addicted to racing from one dopamine releasing event to another with no room for breathing in between. Until we discern the impact of dopamine addiction in our own lives and its impact on our behaviors, we certainly cannot co-regulate the rush our children feel when they chase after sugar highs or social media “likes.”
22.06.2023
In Montana, 16 young Americans are fighting for their environmental rights
Montana is one of three states (Montana, New York and Pennsylvania) that have a Constitutional right for Environmental Protection, in fact it states, “Article IX -- ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES. Section 1. Protection and improvement. (1) The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.” The 16 young people in this story, are focused on forcing their State Legislators to attend to this State-Granted Right as Montana plots its future energy plans.
21.06.2023
4 Charts That Explain How People Slide Into Homelessness
https://apple.news/Asqff3JvSRcGnel4nRRuT8Q
The slide into homelessness is a tragedy, but it is not a mystery. This article helps us understand the precursors to homelessness in a majority of situations and how compassionate groups can work to prevent the “slide.”
This Week’s Links
27.06.2023
Attacks on queer & trans rights are a dire sign for democracy
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/06/attacks-on-queer-trans-rights-are-a-dire-sign-for-democracy/
Disbelief, anger among relatives of Greek shipwreck victims as millions spent on Titan rescue effort
https://apple.news/AhBhABjxlSmOE52BR_J0z7A
Small Ways Leaders Can Build Schools Where Everyone Feels Like They Belong
What is racial battle fatigue? A school psychologist explains
An Age-By-Age Guide to Talking to Kids About Race
https://lifehacker.com/an-age-by-age-guide-to-talking-to-kids-about-race-1850460959
Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law
Is Your Child Overstimulated? Here's What to Do.
https://www.parents.com/overstimulation-in-kids-how-to-deal-with-sensory-overload-7550046
26.06.2023
It doesn’t matter if a girl identified as a cat (she didn’t). The issue is how post-truth politics exploits it
https://apple.news/AtTrz1hy1RgGFpouYC6pvQg
This Church Is Going Viral For Their Openness And Their Sign Game Is Epic (96 New Pics) Interview
https://www.boredpanda.com/clever-signs-clackamas-united-church-of-christ/
Why are so many young people cutting off their parents?
https://apple.news/Aj-gAYbdnRwa1HTelwIG25g
‘Phubbing’ is harming our closest relationships – here’s why and how
https://apple.news/AFPF6Qkp7QOadmJNtkGNZPg
25.06.2023
Disbelief, anger among relatives of Greek shipwreck victims as millions spent on Titan rescue effort
https://apple.news/AhBhABjxlSmOE52BR_J0z7A
Barack Obama shares the No. 1 tactic he uses to maintain a positive mindset
https://apple.news/A6LCvl9GgTg-LlTGa2ufldQ
Conservative evangelicals boo Chris Christie after he delivers a speech on character that was rooted in biblical and Christian teaching
He walked away from his evangelical roots to escape feeling suffocated
https://apple.news/A5TXv224iRzCWkjfA7kIEVA
Putin Is Caught in His Own Trap
https://apple.news/A0awUHIkTSaGpcoeWy_jyYQ
24.06.2023
How "Cognitive Defusion" Can Help With Anxiety
What Teaching Is All About
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/what-teaching-is-all-about/
23.06.2023
'Anti-Dopamine Parenting' Can Reduce Or Redirect Kids' Cravings
https://www.scarymommy.com/parenting/anti-dopamine-parenting
One year after Roe v. Wade’s reversal, warnings about abortion become reality
https://apple.news/AwHS6BmTSSWegtnrKNvwfLw
How to Use Music as a Powerful Tool to Help You Focus, According to a Harvard Neuroscientist
On Mindfulness: Finding Peace Within
https://thetaoist.online/on-mindfulness-finding-peace-within-7f0e15b8b3e9
22.06.2023
In Montana, 16 young Americans are fighting for their environmental rights
The 1 Thing Therapists Say Harms Your Happiness The Most
https://apple.news/AvvP02deDTZyrNCcRWlTysQ
Take on the World with These 10 Inspiring Books
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/take-world-10-inspiring-books/43274/
The "alpha male" myth, debunked
https://bigthink.com/series/legends/alpha-male-myth/
Mom goes viral for creating 'How To Be A Person' summer camp—because it's genius
https://www.mother.ly/news/viral-trending/how-to-be-a-person-camp/
21.06.2023
4 Charts That Explain How People Slide Into Homelessness
https://apple.news/Asqff3JvSRcGnel4nRRuT8Q
6 strategies to manage conflict with emotional intelligence
https://bigthink.com/the-learning-curve/6-strategies-manage-conflict-emotional-intelligence/
How the ancient Greeks kept ruthless narcissists from capturing their democracy – and what modern politics could learn from them
Ron DeSantis wants to reshape Florida’s universities. It could lead to a massive ‘brain drain’
Youth Advocacy
The power of myth to control the culture. The power of awe to change the world. How do we replace the dominant myth of the 0.01% who want to further their own insatiable greed?
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 08 (162 total reports)
07.06.2023-13.06.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
The power of myth to control the culture. The power of awe to change the world. How do we replace the dominant myth of the 0.01% who want to further their own insatiable greed?
This Week’s Top Links
20.06.2023
Our Tribal Future: How to Channel Our Foundational Human Instincts into a Force for Good
This review reminds me of a favorite book of mine, “Sapiens; A Brief History of Humankind,” by Yuval Noah Harari. I have that book in both hardcover and audio form and will probably do the same with this book. It’s relevance lies in the examination of myth and myth-keeping, ritual, camps and tribes. It is especially pertinent at a time when the richest 0.01% are trying to buy a myth that supports poverty as a necessary economic policy. It is essential that we decode these myths for what they are; the root of the big businesses of war, healthcare, racism and poverty. The only thing that will change an embedded myth is an alternative one. The human race goes from myth to myth and the ones with the strongest myths control the conversation. Ask what the dominant myths are today and what would you like to see them be.
19.06.2023
Awe can alter our sense of self and open us to new possibilities – could it help save the planet?
I’ve firmly believed and taught that “Awe” is truly what our education system should be focused on growing. Not success, not intelligence; but the heart-felt inspiration of how amazing life can be. A healthy child brings “Awe” to his/her first day of school. And—all too often—we spend years trying to quell it. Awe is, well… messy. It’s unpredictable, it has its own schedule and is difficult to assess. It is also difficult for a person, steeped in today’s education system, to teach awe. This article, written by Nanda Jarosz, the Executive Director of the University of Sydney, is an inspirational look at the power of the emotion of awe to change the world, literally, the world and our climate. Imagine schools filled with AWE: Awesome Wonder-Building Experiences. It makes me ask myself, “What can I do today to increase awe in the world around me?”
18.06.2023
GOP Is Trying to Slash Food Aid to Kids Who Are Already Struggling to Access It
This article is a perfect example of the 0.01% buying a legal and political system to further the myth where poverty is acceptable, even preferred, as an essential tool of the economy.
17.06.2023
9-year-old girl accused of being 'trans' at track event hopes to inspire change
https://apple.news/AKrGsKWGmRJGZFMdWNu4Gfg
(Disclaimer: I changed the sequence of these two articles to make more sense). This girl was at an athletic event in BC when an adult approached her and questioned her gender. The adult (a grandparent of another child at the event) didn’t think she looked “feminine enough” and questioned whether she should be competing as a girl. There are a variety of stories on social media about what happened after. But the essential issue becomes apparent in the next article below. The gender police are coming.
16.06/2023
Whether you’re trans or not, the gender police are coming for you too
https://apple.news/AGMfdnEe5SeShWcJ0dFuFoA
This article asks the question, “What if this behavior goes unchecked?” Will females have to start carrying cards to prove their identity? Some GOP governors have already floated the idea in their States (testing grounds for Federal programs) demanding that women athletes submit menstruation records to schools, government and insurance companies. As one writer has penned, “What is the word for a person who is only known by their reproductive abilities? Livestock.”
15.06.2023
Empty seats at high-school graduations reveal toll of gun violence: “We’re losing our kids”
https://apple.news/Ap8bkI4GWRbi3VDI5EexN7Q
This was the most poignant article of the week to me. Some parents of children killed in shootings across the United States are standing in for them at graduations. Ten years after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, it is a national disgrace that no significant change in gun laws have occurred and that, rather than decreasing, deaths from guns have become the No. 1 killer of children in that country. Who continues to profit from the myth around guns and what politicians have those myth-makers bought? We need to follow the money, find the myth-makers and take away their political power. At the top of the NRA’s contributions is Senator Ted Cruz who always comes up with deceptive ways to hide the causes of gun violence.
14.06.2023
The Right Response to Threats of Political Violence
https://apple.news/A2sgisiTgR4KfGWB92ePGVw
Threats of violence swirl around the indictment of Donald Trump and there are vociferous calls for violence from political hacks like Kari Lake, Andy Biggs and Clay Higgins as well as the former toddler-in-chief himself. So far, the calls have largely been unanswered and/or defused, perhaps because those who responded to the previous calls to violence on January 6th have watched their co-conspirators go to jail while their no-show leaders were safely observing from a distance. Maybe they have realized that these pseudo-leaders charge from the back of the crowd, unlike Civil Rights leaders who led from the front of their people and often took the first blows for justice. Cadaverous leaders, like Josh Hawley, who can’t seem to stop disgracing himself (see his tweets on Juneteenth), were filmed calling for violence than literally running in the opposite direction when his minions responded.
This Week’s Links
20.06.2023
Our Tribal Future: How to Channel Our Foundational Human Instincts into a Force for Good
Supercharge Your Emotional Intelligence by Understanding the 12 Skills That Make Up EQ
Josh Hawley Gets Holy Hell After Juneteenth Claim About Christianity And Slavery
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/josh-hawley-christians-slavery_n_6490fd94e4b048eb91179b17
19.06.2023
Awe can alter our sense of self and open us to new possibilities – could it help save the planet?
Morality Is for Trump What Colors Are to the Color-Blind
https://apple.news/Ar_uX4zHnRIuyS5rg27Ye0A
18.06.2023
GOP Is Trying to Slash Food Aid to Kids Who Are Already Struggling to Access It
The Path to Happiness Is Narrow But Easy
https://apple.news/AStHvil-rSemc1aA5uwItYQ
17.06/2023
Whether you’re trans or not, the gender police are coming for you too
https://apple.news/AGMfdnEe5SeShWcJ0dFuFoA
How LGBTQ+ people can protect their mental health during a traumatizing Pride season
Why the search for meaning is not a job for science — or religion
https://bigthink.com/the-well/search-meaning-not-science-religion/
How LGBTQ+ people can protect their mental health during a traumatizing Pride season
16.06.2023
Empty seats at high-school graduations reveal toll of gun violence: “We’re losing our kids”
https://apple.news/Ap8bkI4GWRbi3VDI5EexN7Q
Is the Bible the Most Dangerous Book Ever Written?
Get Inspired with These Quotes and Turn Your Day Around Now
https://thetaoist.online/get-inspired-with-these-quotes-and-turn-your-day-around-now-6017c92de2c2
15.06.2023
9-year-old girl accused of being 'trans' at track event hopes to inspire change
https://apple.news/AKrGsKWGmRJGZFMdWNu4Gfg
Empty seats at high-school graduations reveal toll of gun violence: “We’re losing our kids”
https://apple.news/Ap8bkI4GWRbi3VDI5EexN7Q
Is the Bible the Most Dangerous Book Ever Written?
Get Inspired with These Quotes and Turn Your Day Around Now
https://thetaoist.online/get-inspired-with-these-quotes-and-turn-your-day-around-now-6017c92de2c2
8 Things Parents Of Kids With Learning Disabilities Need To Understand
Forget the influencers. Here come the 'deinfluencers'
https://apple.news/AazbrT-suSci_pYTUv00FQg
How to Help Guide Your Teen Through the Overwhelm of High School
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-help-guide-your-teen-through-the-overwhelm-of-hi-1850540899
Learning Bias, Not Distrust: The Unseen Hurdle in Embracing AI Algorithms - Neuroscience News
‘Hoard evidence of your greatness’: 10 ways to be much more confident at work
https://apple.news/AQtE_ZyniQgOOPpYWJzw0zA
14.06.2023
The Right Response to Threats of Political Violence
https://apple.news/A2sgisiTgR4KfGWB92ePGVw
The ‘Single Greatest Hindrance’ to Learning
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/06/smartphones-high-school-children/674389/
Leadership lessons from Ted Lasso
https://corp.smartbrief.com/original/2023/06/leadership-lessons-from-ted-lasso
40 Positive Affirmations To Share With Your Kids To Build Their Confidence
https://www.romper.com/parenting/affirmations-for-kids
The Anti-Woke Crowd Is Teaching American Kids to Be Saps and Suckers
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a44185771/american-history-high-school-protests/
How to Proactively Defuse Tension on Your Team
https://hbr.org/2023/06/how-to-proactively-defuse-tension-on-your-team
Use 'Social Stories' to Help Kids Navigate Big Transitions
https://lifehacker.com/use-social-stories-to-help-kids-navigate-big-transition-1850531574
How Can A Simple, 2-Step Mindful Gratitude Practice Change My Life?
Youth Advocacy
Topics this week: People turn to fear to govern when they actually have no substantive platform to offer voters. A Finnish Philosopher and Psychologist offers insights into the meaning of life.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 07 (161 total reports)
07.06.2023-13.06.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Topics this week: People turn to fear to govern when they actually have no substantive platform to offer voters. A Finnish Philosopher and Psychologist offers insights into the meaning of life.
This Week’s Top Links
13.06.2023
I Finally Asked My Second-Grader What Happens in Her Lockdown Drills. It Broke My Heart.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/06/lockdown-mental-health-students-parenting.html
A father is reading his 7-8 year old a bedtime story and the story leads to a discussion about active shooter drills in schools. It is heartbreaking to think that the No. 1 cause of death of children in the US are guns and that this is a problem that can be addressed. Instead, a minuscule fraction in congress ignores the pleads of its own voters and continues to distract citizens from the real issue. guns, Guns, GUNS! The real question we should be asking (of ourselves and our “representatives”) is, “Who profits from keeping gun laws the way they are?”
12.06.2023
Hateopia: The Great Migration of Racists to the South
https://williamspivey.medium.com/hateopia-the-great-migration-of-racists-to-the-south-840ebe3b6ec6
At the root of hate is fear. It is important to isolate the voices that are promoting fear in our country and using it to stoke authoritarian responses to division and hate. When I was sitting in the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam and listening to the voice of Hitler, it reawakened in me the realization of how far back hate-based people have used fear to isolate populations. It is unremarkable that their list of primary enemies are always so familiar; immigration, racism, anti-LGBTQ. People turn to fear to govern when they actually have no substantial platform to offer voters. Don’t let their malicious diatribe lead you into believing they know how to govern or even have a majority. If those authoritarian representatives had a majority, they wouldn’t be so adamant about re-writing voter laws.
11.06.2023
I’m a psychologist in Finland, the No. 1 happiest country in the world—here's the real meaning of life
https://apple.news/ABBfoK5-zR7GCRn4lecbzUQ
This article is filled with gems that you could meditate on for weeks (perhaps for a lifetime). I love the author’s (Frank Martela) quote of the Finnish statement, “Speech is Silver, but Silence is Golden.” Take the time to reflect on this writers’ insights, you’ll certainly be glad you did.
10.06.2023
What does it mean to really ‘belong’?
https://www.fastcompany.com/90905920/what-does-it-mean-to-really-belong
DEI & B (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging). Research is reminding us the premiere importance of belonging in learning organizations. If you want to build open-minded entities where continuous learning is a primary quality, belonging at all levels is the factor you want to emphasize.
09.06.2023
A Racist Society Is Detrimental to Your Health
https://apple.news/Aier3H2mmT9OBpDPbUqrlQQ
From depression to cancer, the impact of racism is a weight around the neck of any society (or entity) that doesn’t honestly address it. It is important to look at the economics of racism from a standpoint of how it impedes all members but also from a perspective of who it benefits economically. Who benefits the most from having a permanent underclass and pitting groups of the population against each other? To research this question, begin by examining who received the biggest tax cuts under the Trump administration.
08.06.2023
Republican attacks on trans people smack of fascism
https://apple.news/AC5Y4Ds5VSJykLlhSY4E_4w
Republican attacks on trans people are not novel, nor are they unprecedented. They have been a common theme in the playbook of authoritarian regimes for ages. Currently, the vitriol is becoming so heated that it is life threatening and many people are leaving states such as Florida to insure the safety of their trans children. But it’s not just southern States, states such as Indiana and now Idaho have politicized hatred towards young people exploring their gender identity as well. Will the US continue to listen to the siren calls of hatred and violence towards large swaths of people who are diverse?
07.06.2023
Amanda Gorman’s Book Sales Skyrocket Following a Ban on Her Poem in a Florida School
https://mymodernmet.com/amanda-gorman-banned-books/
https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/best-chatgpt-prompts/
In an article last week, the Florida woman who pushed for the ban on Amanda Gorman’s poetry admitted she didn’t even like reading. Today—truly a historic day in US history—as Trump faces a Federal indictment in South Florida, it is important to ask how many of those protesting against his arrest have even read the 37 Federal Crimes Trump is accused of in the indictment against him. It is no mystery that ignorance (and hatred) are the children of illiteracy and why the ultra-conservative GOP wants to regulate what young people in our schools and universities are allowed to read. An informed public is harder to deceive.
This Week’s Links
13.06.2023
I Finally Asked My Second-Grader What Happens in Her Lockdown Drills. It Broke My Heart.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/06/lockdown-mental-health-students-parenting.html
No One Knows Exactly What Social Media Is Doing to Teens
https://apple.news/AxaJ7e1DxRnCtqG_x0UtJkg
Parents take advantage of summer to teach kids 'how to be a person' skills
12.06.2023
Hateopia: The Great Migration of Racists to the South
https://williamspivey.medium.com/hateopia-the-great-migration-of-racists-to-the-south-840ebe3b6ec6
Schools Are Trying to Do Too Much (Opinion)
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-schools-are-trying-to-do-too-much/2023/06
The Sociology of AI!
https://medium.com/data-and-beyond/the-sociology-of-ai-4d9693a4bc68
All the ways AI is going to change (not steal) your job
https://www.fastcompany.com/90907188/all-the-ways-ai-is-going-to-change-not-steal-your-job
Mapping Emotion Recognition in Children
https://neurosciencenews.com/emotional-recognition-children-23432/
11.06.2023
I’m a psychologist in Finland, the No. 1 happiest country in the world—here's the real meaning of life
https://apple.news/ABBfoK5-zR7GCRn4lecbzUQ
Great Books Can Heal Our Divided Campuses
https://apple.news/A4BeeH-VcRayLH0GNLwsnBQ
Don’t Try to Be Happy; Try to Feel Joy and Gratitude
https://www.algemeiner.com/2023/06/09/dont-try-to-be-happy-try-to-feel-joy-and-gratitude/
Eastern philosophy says there is no “self.” Science agrees
https://bigthink.com/the-well/eastern-philosophy-neuroscience-no-self/
10.06.2023
What does it mean to really ‘belong’?
https://www.fastcompany.com/90905920/what-does-it-mean-to-really-belong
It Takes Courage to Change
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-main-ingredient/202306/it-takes-courage-to-change
Neurotypical vs. Neurodivergent: What’s the Difference?
https://www.purewow.com/family/neurotypical-vs-neurodivergent
A Taste of How It Feels to Be Free: Pioneering Psychoanalyst Karen Horney on Our Inner Conflicts, the Psychology of Hopelessness, and the Path to Wholeness
https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/06/07/karen-horney-our-inner-conflicts/
Age of AI: Everything you need to know about artificial intelligence
09.06.2023
A Racist Society Is Detrimental to Your Health
https://apple.news/Aier3H2mmT9OBpDPbUqrlQQ
National Affairs: Guns at the Pride Parade
https://apple.news/AoAMI5A0pSxu6wgie-aLNeA
More kids and teens are getting anxiety medication without therapy, report finds
https://apple.news/A_J_Z0PMfQUiFeoBCyVP_VA
For kids exploring social media, here are three steps the surgeon general wants parents to take
https://apple.news/Ax2LHmtU_SL-goTJvupcLSg
08.06.2023
Republican attacks on trans people smack of fascism
https://apple.news/AC5Y4Ds5VSJykLlhSY4E_4w
‘It’s been a total witch-hunt. It takes its toll’: the LGBTQ+ families fleeing red states
https://apple.news/AD_5kANEtQPGGc394EIkIlQ
We need to rethink discipline in schools
https://apple.news/A2xeNh8HSQYKI56_ZEMEzUQ
07.06.2023
Amanda Gorman’s Book Sales Skyrocket Following a Ban on Her Poem in a Florida School
https://mymodernmet.com/amanda-gorman-banned-books/
Winning the Long Game in Parenting
Get Phones Out of Schools Now
https://apple.news/AW2b6NKaaSG-KELdQRWk8Nw
Don’t Want Students to Rely on ChatGPT? Have Them Use It
Youth Advocacy
Don’t be fooled. The world is not as hateful as the Evangelical, Ultra-Conservative, Right is trying to make it seem. Sadly, it only takes a small group with a fear-filled message to flood the airwaves today.
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 06 (160 total reports)
17.05.2023-06.06.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Don’t be fooled. The world is not as hateful as the Evangelical, Ultra-Conservative, Right is trying to make it seem. Sadly, it only takes a small group with a fear-filled message to flood the airwaves today.
This Week’s Top Links
06.06.2023
This Gay Teacher Quit After 8.5 Years — And One Thing Pushed Her Over The Edge
https://apple.news/A5M2VgFfOTnWhcTfjj1tCZw
Florida is doing deep and lasting damage to itself in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ maniacal passion to get the State (and now the Country) to hate/fear diverse people.
05.06.2023
America Is Headed Toward Collapse
https://apple.news/Ashvuxi_QSQG1aUiFDdjcoQ
Under the likes of Karl Rove, the GOP learned to exploit a single issue and turn it into a campaign of fear. AI has the potential of exacerbating that technique infinitely and our best defense is being WOKE (mindful and compassionate).
04.06.2023
Here’s How Americans Really Feel About LGBTQ Issues
Radical, ultra-conservative, evangelicals are in the minority, but their message is passionate and consumed with vitriol. Don’t equate being loud with being a majority.
03.06.2023
Bible Banned in Schools as Book Censorship Backfires Big Time
I applaud those who used the same tactics that the hateful, right conspiracy is using to ban a book that is full of sex and violence. I will file this under, “What is sauce for the goose…”
02.06.2023
Opinion | America’s Poverty Is Built by Design
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/05/21/theres-a-path-out-of-poverty-00097399
The question that is important to ask when reading through this article is “who benefits from poverty?” One of the reports below examines the alarming trend of the downward life expectancy of the United States. Who benefits by rationing health care? Who benefits from gun violence and, in this issue, who benefits from poverty? One need not look any further than the Republicans farce of a “budget deal” when holding the world economy hostage to pay for Donald Trump’s debts and tax cuts.
01.06.2023
AI Poses ‘Risk of Extinction’ on Par With Pandemics and Nuclear War, Tech Executives Warn
https://apple.news/AJiMWQglRSp-htMJzbm2vaA
The greatest risk is not the technology itself, but its ubiquitous use in social media and the lack of a mindful response. There is another article below that discusses that children taught to be mindful in early grades are far less likely to fall prey to negative social media. While I was typing this blog, an AI-Generated message came into my mailbox asking me to update personal information for a service I have used before. The cover letter looked so legitimate and I had used the business previously. I took a moment to reflect and realized that this was the perfect setup for some devious group to get me to click on their pseudo-web site and upload much of my important data. The problem with AI-generated messages is that they look so familiar and appeal to our interests. That’s NO accident. Mindfulness helps us teach young people; be vigilant and always verify your sources.
This Week’s Links
06.06.2023
This Gay Teacher Quit After 8.5 Years — And One Thing Pushed Her Over The Edge
https://apple.news/A5M2VgFfOTnWhcTfjj1tCZw
Who receives food benefits? It may not be who you think
https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/data-work-requirements-food-benefits-snap-rcna86440
Why humans are surprisingly bad at being happy
https://bigthink.com/the-well/how-to-be-happy-415573/
How To Be Unshakeable In Every Situation
https://www.worldatlas.com/philosophy/how-to-be-unshakeable-in-every-situation.html
05.06.2023
America Is Headed Toward Collapse
https://apple.news/Ashvuxi_QSQG1aUiFDdjcoQ
“There were fists everywhere”: Violence against teachers is on the rise
https://apple.news/AzBICqSmwQbu6oM7gdkkjkA
Awe-inducing experiences lead to greater prosocial behavior in kids
99 Times Matt Charts Summed Up Certain Situations In Life Better Than Words Ever Could
https://www.boredpanda.com/hilarious-relatable-charts-matt-shirley-2/
04.06.2023
Here’s How Americans Really Feel About LGBTQ Issues
US life expectancy problem is ‘bigger than we ever thought,’ report finds
https://apple.news/A65FvAgISSEKUkkowEqDY-g
03.06.2023
Bible Banned in Schools as Book Censorship Backfires Big Time
Utah primary schools ban Bible for 'vulgarity and violence'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65794363
Advice | Gaslighting is emotional abuse. Here’s how to recognize and stop it.
https://apple.news/AhnyUDfTuSRORPRTPGf9c-w
7 Brilliant Questions Emotionally Intelligent People Ask Themselves (Over and Over and Over)
Poll: Americans say teachers are underpaid, about half of Republicans oppose book bans
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/02/1177566467/poll-teachers-underpaid-republicans-book-bans
Maybe You Need a Life Coach, Not a Therapist—Here's the Difference
https://apple.news/Abvw9CCPKSbyMCkaz-Q-ePA
02.06.2023
Opinion | America’s Poverty Is Built by Design
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/05/21/theres-a-path-out-of-poverty-00097399
The ultimate anxiety explainer: The six biggest questions about worrying, answered by a psychologist
https://apple.news/AKsuHdtnBR5mNcK_r_SFyOw
01.06.2023
AI Poses ‘Risk of Extinction’ on Par With Pandemics and Nuclear War, Tech Executives Warn
https://apple.news/AJiMWQglRSp-htMJzbm2vaA
Meditation Diminishes Bias Toward Negative Information
https://neurosciencenews.com/meditation-cognitive-bias-23372/
How To Make Someone Truly Feel Heard
https://www.fatherly.com/life/how-to-make-someone-else-feel-heard
4 ways AI will change the classroom with Khan Academy founder Sal Khan
31.05.2023
When a second grader doesn't have lunch, a teacher steps in to save the day
https://apple.news/AlUziNufuTGukMZy_hXpjMw
The 25 Best Children’s Books of All Time
https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/best-childrens-books-of-all-time-bbc
What to Do If Your Child Experiences a Mental Health Emergency
https://www.parents.com/what-to-do-if-your-child-experiences-a-mental-health-emergency-7501637
FL Parent Who Had Amanda Gorman's Poem Removed from School... Doesn't Read
https://www.theroot.com/fl-parent-who-had-amanda-gormans-poem-removed-from-scho-1850486810