Enjoy Holiday Break

This week's article summary is How One Sentence Can Change Your Life.

Holiday break is a much-needed time during the school year for a re-set. 

Spring Break — and obviously, Summer — are the two other times when we have time to take a few deep breaths, practice self-care, and re-energize our professional batteries.

But to me Holiday Break is special in that the re-focus is about gearing up for the second half of the year, like a water break at the 13-mile marker of a marathon.

My annual mid-year re-set includes attitudinal re-centering.

Below is an article with inspiring quotes that helped people refocus their attitude toward the bigger picture and not to let life’s frustrations, anger, stress, or disappointment get the better of them.

Over the next few weeks when you find a few spare moments of solitude and self-reflection, think about which of the quotes below could be a mantra you use to re-orient yourself when the outside pressures of life try to get you down.

Enjoy the holidays with family, friends, and hopefully some alone time!

Joe

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There’s nothing quite like having a breakthrough moment. When you hear something that completely reframes how you view a challenging life situation that helps you move past the barrier and into a new headspace, it can be exhilarating.

 "Breakthrough is that moment when frustration, struggling, fear, worry, or anxiety disappears,” famed personal development coach Tony Robbins once said. “It's a moment of insight, recognition about who you are, and the realization that you are more than the moment. It's a radical, massive improvement in the quality of your life, and as a result, all those you have the privilege to touch."

 Here are some words of advice sentences that changed people’s lives.

Sometimes when you’re in a dark place, you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted: This is a spin on an old saying, They tried to bury us, but they didn't realize we were seeds.

Never try to hate anyone; often they don't care, and you're left doing all the work: Said by a friend of mine at a very critical time in my life. It's been said in other ways, but that one stuck with me for the last 35+ years. Makes me think of this gem: Never get in a fight with a pig. You both get covered in sh*t but the pig enjoys it. Hate corrodes the vessel it's carried in.

Have you had a bad day, or did you have a bad 5 minutes that you let ruin your day? I need someone to remind me of this sometimes! I'm not neurotypical and I can tell sometimes that when things can't go to my plan or agreed schedule it can be like a monkey wrench in a gear and just PAUSE my life in a way I hate sometimes.

People are quick to accept that the smallest change in the past can dramatically change the present, yet refuse to accept that the smallest action today can completely change the world: Hindsight’s 20/20 as they say, and it’s easier to know the difference between the outcome compared to the present. Whereas our current actions, we really have no way of knowing how it’ll affect the future, as there are so many other variables that could affect things, and we can’t see into the future.

Don't set yourself on fire to keep others warm: This reminds of an African proverb Beware the naked man who offers you clothes.

 I love you enough to let you hate me

 Nothing is going to be different unless you do things differently: Nothing changes if nothing changes!

Living well is the best revenge: Instead of making yourself miserable stewing over the past, improve your life and make yourself happy. For the people that hate you, or just generally dislike you, there's nothing worse than seeing you be happy. If someone hurts you on purpose, you don't need to try and hurt them back, if you become obsessed with them, then they've won, but being happy and leading a good life is the best revenge you could have, because they'll hate to see it. If you can't love yourself for you, love yourself just out of spite towards the people who would bring you down.

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough

Acceptance is the answer: When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation—some fact of my life—unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. I was so consumed with everything that was wrong around me. It made me start looking at and adjusting myself instead. I can only control me.

You never know what someone is going through, always be kind: Always react with kindness. It costs you nothing and can make most situations much better.

Righty tighty, lefty loosey: Sometimes it’s the banal reminders that ground me!

The price of procrastination is the life you could have lived.

Let today be the day you learn the grace of letting go, and the power of moving on.

 

Girls and Boys Solve Math Problems Differently

This week's article summary is Girls and Boys Solve Math Problems Differently.

The big takeaway from this article is while girls typically get better grades in math classes—particularly in elementary and middle school--more boys than girls end up in jobs that requires math.

Girls have a greater tendency to follow the mathematical procedures taught by their teacher while boys are much more willing to be experimental and creative in devising their own methods and strategies for solving math problems.

This adventurousness of boys is advantageous when to comes to dealing with increasingly complex and multi-step math problems.

Certainly, there are other factors at work: for example, girls tend to be compliant in class and deferential to the teacher.

The pedagogy Trinity employs for teaching math emphasizes creative problem solving. We challenge students (both girls and boys) to find multiple ways to solve problems, helping to build deeper conceptual understanding. This deeper understanding of math concepts increases a student's confidence and flexibility when they encounter more complex math concepts and problems.

Joe

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Among high school students and adults, girls and women are much more likely to use traditional, step-by-step algorithms to solve basic math problems – such as lining up numbers to add, starting with the ones place, and “carrying over” a number when needed. 

Boys and men are more likely to use alternative shortcuts, such as rounding both numbers, adding the rounded figures, and then adjusting to remove the rounding.

Those who use traditional methods on basic problems are less likely to solve more complex math problems correctly. 

These are the main findings of two studies published in November 2025.

This new evidence may help explain an apparent contradiction in the existing research: girls do far better at math in school, but boys do better on high-stakes math tests and are more likely to pursue math intensive careers. 

Boys and girls approach math problems differently, in ways that persist into adulthood.

In a recent study of U.S. elementary students, boys outnumbered girls 4 to1 among the top 1% of scorers on national math tests. And over many decades, boys have been about twice as likely as girls to be among the top scorers on the SAT and AP math exams.

However, girls tend to be more diligent in elementary school and get better grades in math class throughout their schooling. 

When older adults think of math, they may recall memorizing times tables or doing the tedious, long-division algorithm. Memorization and rule-following can pay off on math tests focused on procedures taught in school, but more advanced math involves solving new, perplexing problems rather than following the rules.

In looking at studies of young children, the research team was struck by findings that young boys use more inventive strategies on computation problems, whereas girls more often use standard algorithms or counting. 

We suspected that girls’ tendency to use algorithms might stem from greater social pressure toward compliance, including complying with traditional teacher expectations. The research showed that girls were more likely to report a desire to please teachers, such as by completing work as directed. Those who said they did have that desire used the standard algorithm more often.

We identified some factors that may play a role in these gender differences, including spatial-thinking skills, which may help people develop alternate calculations approaches. Anxiety about taking tests and perfectionism, both more prevalent among women, may also be a factor.

While compliant behavior and standard math methods often lead to correct answers and good grades in school, we believe schools should prepare all students – regardless of gender – for when they face unfamiliar problems that require inventive problem-solving skills, whether in daily life, on high-stakes tests or in math-intensive professions.

Improvement in Youth Mental Health

This week's article summary is The Good News About the Youth Mental Health Crisis.

Particularly after the Covid pandemic, the mental health crisis in youths around the world has been in the spotlight.

While adolescence--at least since the 1950s when the idea of teen culture began--has included inevitable angst and self-doubt, the world today seems more dangerous and unpredictable. It used to be a given that the next generation in America would aspire and often achieve a higher quality of life than the previous one — especially when it came to material things like houses, cars, etc. The belief in continuous progress and increasing wealth is gone.

With more competition, not just from other people but from AI too, internal and external pressure to be perfect and excel in all things all the time, anxiety about the future, more online than in-person time, and politicians/social media influencers who often spew hateful, polarizing messages, the world today is more troubling than in previous generations.

All this uncertainty has had an adverse effect on today’s youth: anxiety, loneliness, depression.

Although many of us believe that teens are heading toward even deeper, darker abyss of emotional turmoil, the article below is a hopeful sign that adolescents in the aggregate may be starting to feel better about themselves and their future.

Part of the reason is that we adults, especially parents and teachers, have been more attuned to their needs and are more sensitive to their psychological well-being. For example, many of the schools our alums matriculate to have gone lighter on homework and overall academic workload. 

Part of it also may be that kids today recognize that to change the world for the better, they need to take more initiative and not entrust the older generation to shape the future. Think of the recent New York City mayoral election which was dramatically impacted by young voters.

Clearly the crisis isn’t over, and kids of all ages need our attention, empathy, compassion, and guidance; yet I am glad to see that that the data is moving in a positive direction regarding adolescent mental health.

Joe

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If there’s one settled fact about life online, it’s that negativity gets more attention than positivity. As one study of more than 100,000 headlines found, negative stories receive far more interest than positive ones. 

Which is why you probably haven’t yet heard the good news about the youth mental health crisis. 

The youth mental health crisis is real. The fact that young people have been struggling emotionally has earned extensive coverage for at least a half-decade, with good reason. Rates of anxiety and depression shot up among youth over the last several years. Horrifyingly, the suicide rate for 10- to 24-year-olds jumped 62 percent from 2007 to 2021. 

The numbers were so alarming that in 2021 the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children’s Hospital Association jointly declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health. That same year the U.S. Surgeon General issued a youth mental health advisory.

This wasn’t media overreaction. Young people really have been struggling mightily. But amid this tornado of alarming news, and with the internet’s baseline preference for negativity, it’s easy for glimmers of hope to get lost. 

Which is why most of us haven’t yet heard that the youth mental health crisis is showing signs of improvement.

That’s the message of a recent article in Greater Good Magazine by Anya Kamenetz. When it comes to young people’s mental health, “things have been looking up in many ways,” Kamenetz writes. “And while there are certainly still disparities and major gaps to be addressed, the incipient positive turn in youth well-being is not receiving the same amount of attention as the negative trendlines before it.” 

What are these underreported green shoots of good news? 

Kamenetz mentions several: 

• Data shows a two-year uptick in college students who are flourishing for the first time since 2012.
• Other sources indicate a small decrease in reported loneliness and anxiety among young people.
• Numbers from Health’s Youth Mental Health Tracker showed four-in-five reported being satisfied with life, happy, and feeling that what they do in life is meaningful in 2024.  
• In July 2024 94 percent of 10- to 18-year-olds told Gallup that they felt happiness “a lot” the previous day. 
• The National Institutes of Health reported an unprecedented trend in the reduction of illicit substance use among teenagers in 2024.

Taken together, all these data points paint a picture of young people who, while still worried about their future and the world’s many problems, are feeling slightly better overall. 

The data suggest something real has shifted. But at this early stage it’s not entirely clear what that is. Covid and all its attendant traumas slowly receding into the rearview mirror certainly can’t hurt. Kamenetz also suggests that the attention on youth mental health may have driven resources and funding towards the problem. 

Whatever the causes, these hopeful signs are encouraging. But that doesn’t mean we should declare “job done” and pop the champagne. 

There is still a lot of suffering out there, particularly among LGBTQ+, minority, and economically disadvantaged youth, Kamenetz stresses. We have a long way to go to help everyone who needs support. But it is important to notice success so we can build on them. 

There is another reason to notice and applaud signs that a turnaround in youth mental health is underway. All the recent doom and gloom on the subject in itself might be contributing to young people’s mental health issues.

Northwestern University psychology professors Vijay Mittal and Renee Engeln recently argued in theWall Street Journal that the attention given to the youth mental health crisis may be accidentally making it worse.

“The growing focus on students’ anxiety and depression, while well-intentioned, may be making psychological distress seem inevitable. Instead of fostering a supportive community for adolescent and young-adult students with mental-health concerns, we may be reinforcing a false and destructive belief that misery is universal among young people,” they warn.

Panicked headlines about sad teenagers may have inadvertently conveyed the message that, if you are a thoughtful, aware, kind kid, you will also inevitably be a miserable one. That messaging could nudge young people to over focus and even pathologize negative emotions that are a normal part of human life. 

“Emotions are contagious. When students internalize the idea that suffering is the norm, that norm—even when inaccurate—can foster a culture of misery,” the psychologists worry. 

Raising the alarm about suffering young people was the right thing to do. You need to know about a problem in order to solve it. But given what attracts most eyeballs in the media, it’s important to trumpet positive developments too. 

For one, we all need more positivity (and factual accuracy) in our lives. Plus, good news is energizing. If you see that your efforts are having an impact, you’ll likely be driven to work even harder. Finally, negativity can become a self-reinforcing cycle.

Teens who think being young means guaranteed mental health woes are more vulnerable to suffering. Thankfully, that’s not what the latest data says. 

Yes, the kids have been going through a very rocky patch. But evidence suggests things are starting to look a little more positive for youth mental health. Serious psychological suffering need not be an inevitable part of being young.  

Play-Based Learning is Making a Comeback

 This week’s article summary is 'Play-Based Learning in Kindergarten is Making a Comeback.'

The article traces the decline of play-based learning in early elementary grades since the passage of No Child Left Behind legislation in the early 2000s. The intent behind the law was to improve student learning by increasing the ‘rigor' in school.

Unfortunately, when non-educators attempt to improve student learning, they typically implement old-fashioned, ineffective methods: more solitary seat work, more direct time on task, more rote learning, more testing.

Especially in public schools, this has become the dominant pedagogy in early elementary grades. 

This change not surprisingly hasn’t improved student learning, but it has left many kids bored and disconnected from school . As a result, play-based learning is making a comeback in some public elementary schools. (I write ‘public schools’ because a lot of private-independent schools like Trinity never abandoned play-based learning.)

The benefits of play-based learning are manifold: student empowerment and engagement; social-emotional development, e.g., self-confidence, working with others; increased student learning (see the study described in the article).

But, while play-based learning from the 1960s was by design unstructured, today’s focus is more on what’s now called playful learning or guided play: teachers as diligent observers who as needed help guide and facilitate student learning.

As admissions season is upon us, our message to prospective parents is Trinity allows students -- even older ones – the opportunity to play, explore, and discover, and that our faculty provide classroom activities that are meaningful and relevant to their students’ developmental level. There is always intentionality behind the fun and joy of learning!

Our students perform well on standardized tests, not because we teach to the test but because of how we teach our students.

Joe

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Over the past 20 years, imaginative play areas that once occupied a dominant part of the kindergarten landscape—think dress-up corners, easels and paints, stacks of blocks—have, in many instances, been replaced with literacy corners and science centers. Getting along with classmates and learning to follow simple instructions from a teacher also have been sidelined as the primary goals of kindergarten. Now, most kindergarten teachers are focused primarily on preparing young learners for future academic success.

The changes have not gone unnoticed by educators, parents, and policymakers.

“What I was noticing as a kindergarten teacher is that the opportunities for kids to come in and have chances to play, to experiment and test how the world works, were being pushed out for more academic instruction that wasn’t necessarily aligned with where their skill levels were or the experiences they had,” said Christopher Brown, the associate dean for teacher education at the University of Buffalo’s Graduate School of Education and a former kindergarten teacher. “That’s continued to be a concern with teachers that I’ve talked to for the past 20 years.

Decision makers in some states and districts have begun to heed concerns raised by Brown and other education experts about the direction kindergarten has taken. As a result, some schools are returning play to its prominent role in kindergarten.

As Brown noted, teachers have been raising concerns about changes to kindergarten for two decades. That time frame coincides with the passage of No Child Left Behind, the federal education law in place from January 2002 to December 2015. The law, which sought to improve public education for all children, led to an increase in standardized instruction and accountability measures related to academic achievement.

The pressure schools felt for their students to perform academically trickled down to even the earliest grades.

Nesbitt attributes the pressure to ensure that students are performing on grade level to the rise in what she calls “passive, didactic, large-group instruction” in grades as early as kindergarten.

“Nobody wants to not see students being able to read at grade level or be at grade level in math,” said Nesbitt. Still, she said, this goal inadvertently may have led schools to “push down” expectations that were not developmentally appropriate for young students.

In several states, children begin taking standardized assessments throughout the school year as early as kindergarten.

In recent years, some educators have begun to push back against the “academization” of kindergarten. These voices have gotten the attention of state policymakers; in turn, a few states have begun to push for a return to play in kindergarten. One new state law read: “Educators shall create a learning environment that facilitates high quality, child-directed experiences based upon early childhood best teaching practices and play-based learning that comprise movement, creative expression, exploration, socialization, and music.”

Free, or unstructured, play retains an important place in the kindergarten classroom, believe some education experts. It allows children to explore, imagine, and socialize independently. But it’s generally not been tied to any specific academic goals.

“I love free play, and free play has its own rights. It’s great for social development. It’s great for helping kids build their confidence,” Nesbitt said. “But it’s not going to organically, on its own, teach kids how to read.”

So, schools are starting to adopt play-based or playful learning, in which teachers guide students in playful activities designed to grow specific skills. For example, when students are building with blocks, the teacher could ask facilitating questions like, “What do you think will happen if you add this heavier block on top?”

Play-based learning can boost students’ academic skills, research shows. A 2022 review of 39 studies that compared guided play to direct instruction (when a teacher delivers clearly defined, planned lessons in a prescribed manner) in children up to 8 years old found that guided play has a more significant positive impact than direct instruction on early math skills, shape knowledge, and being able to switch from one task to another.

But kindergarten isn’t just about acquiring academic skills, note education experts. Play-based learning also has the potential to help teach young learners lifelong skills.

“A lot of people are leaning heavily into the importance of play-based learning for the kinds of soft skills they can teach. I call them unconstrained skills,” Nesbitt said. “These are the skills that are not based on content-specific knowledge but rather, things like: How do we teach kids to collaborate with each other? How do we teach kids to be good communicators? How do we help them be critical and creative thinkers? How do we give them the motivation to want to be a learner?”

Digital Media's Influence on Boys

This week's article summary is Digital Culture is Defining Boyhood, and it's a follow-up to a recent summary, which focused on how boys today are exposed to anti-social attitudes/behaviors by social media influencers.

Like last week’s recommendations, this article stresses the importance of boys (and girls as well) having strong, trusting relationships with peers and role models, especially teachers, coaches, and parents.

The author recommends that rather than demonize technology, parents need to guide their children to appropriate technology use. Most boys like to play video games and watch YouTube and TikTok videos. By trying to ban tech use, parents make the forbidden more desirable. Helping kids become skeptical of what they see and experience online, talking about the ambiguities and complexities of the real world, and facilitating face-to-face relationships and discussions will support boys’ growth and development into becoming productive, purposeful adults.

As they move from childhood into adolescence, both boys and girls need to know they matter, belong, and are loved.

I remember my two boys in high school being a thorn in the side of my wife and me, just as I was a pain to my parents when I was a teenager; yet no adult every gave up on my kids or me, even showing care and patience as we discovered who we were going to be as adults.

Caring and understanding teaching and parenting will always supersede social media.

Joe

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When you think about who teaches boys what it means to “be a man,” you probably picture parents, teachers, or maybe coaches.

But a new Common Sense Media report, Boys in the Digital Wild: Online Culture, Identity, and Well-Being, finds that for today’s kids, it’s more likely to be algorithms, influencers, and gaming culture.

The report shows how social media feeds, YouTube channels, and multiplayer games are quietly — yet powerfully — shaping how boys see themselves. The findings highlight the good, the bad, and the complicated realities of growing up male online.

According to the report, three-quarters of boys regularly encounter masculinity-related content online. Messages about “making money” (44 percent), “building muscle” (39 percent), and “fighting or weapons” (35 percent) show up repeatedly, especially for older teens.

Talk To Your Boys author Christopher Pepper says these findings echo what he’s seen in classrooms and in his work with young men’s groups.

“It was striking to see how much algorithms drive boys’ exposure to posts about masculinity. 68 percent of boys who see such material online say it started showing up in their feed without them searching for it,” Pepper. “Adults need to know that as soon as tween and teen boys go online, these algorithms recognize who they are and start promoting a whole set of content to them, and very little of it is designed to help them feel good about themselves or connect well with others.”  

Common Sense Media‘s past research found teens spent an average of 8.5 hours per day on screens (not counting schoolwork).

The report found that over two-thirds of boys (69 percent) regularly see content reinforcing outdated gender roles: that girls only want to date certain kinds of guys, that girls use their looks to get what they want, that boys are treated unfairly compared to girls.

Exposure to this content shifts how boys handle emotions. Those with high exposure are nearly four times more likely to believe sharing worries makes them look weak (40 percent vs. 11 percent of low-exposure boys). Half say they hide hurt feelings from friends.

26 percent say they feel lonely, and loneliness is significantly more common among those immersed in masculinity content online. Lonely boys hang out less often in person and are less likely to join activities that could help them feel connected.

“Right from the beginning, we kind of socialize boys away from connection and away from intimacy,” adds Ruth Whippman, author of Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity. “Boys are every bit as emotionally complex as girls are, and we should engage with them in that way.”

To avoid teasing, nearly half of boys (46 percent) believe they must not cry, show sadness, or show fear to avoid being teased. More than a third believe they shouldn’t act “gay” or “feminine.” Online culture reinforces these rules, making it even harder for boys to express themselves authentically.

While most boys still say they’d turn to parents first in a tough time, the pull of influencers is undeniable: 60 percent say creators inspire them, and 56 percent say influencers give them practical help. Nearly half of boys most exposed to masculinity content credit an influencer with helping them through something difficult.

Pepper notes, “If you’re frustrated with how your son is using technology, or worried about who they are listening to online, rather than being loud and angry about it, try to use a strategic approach. Ask open-ended questions about what’s so compelling about the video game they love, or why it’s so hard to stop playing. This is a key time to emphasize connection — boys can look up to people they don’t know, but they still need close, caring adults in their lives. We shouldn’t let online voices control the whole conversation.”

Pepper emphasizes that connection is the cornerstone. “As this report details, a lot of day-to-day time in the lives of boys and young men involves technology — and it’s mostly on devices that they use on their own, with headphones. That means it can take real work to know what’s going on in your child’s life,” he says. “It’s so important for parents to make a concerted effort to stay connected and offer guidance. We see a lot of parents backing off from involved parenting when their boys get to middle school or high school, and that’s a real misstep. Instead, we need to tune in to our boys and young men, really looking for moments to connect.”

Other things parents can (and should) do:

• Talk about algorithms: Ask what videos pop up in their feeds, and explain how platforms push content they didn’t choose
• Normalize emotional expression: Let boys see adults — especially dads and male role models — express sadness, worry, or vulnerability
• Address body image directly: Discuss unrealistic expectations online, and remind them that appearance doesn’t equal worth
• Stay curious about influencers: Ask who they follow and why, and guide them toward positive voices
• Strengthen offline support: Prioritize real-world friendships, family time, and activities where boys feel accepted for who they are.

The big takeaway? Parents still matter enormously — but they have to speak up and stay connected, because digital culture is filling in the silence. The digital wild can be overwhelming, but with parents in the mix, boys don’t have to navigate it alone.

What's Going On with Boys?

This week's summary is What's Going On with Boys? It was written by an independent school teacher who’s a parent of a young girl and a younger boy.

The article provides an overview of the gradual decline over the past 15-20 years of boys’ academic performance in schools.

The prevailing culture of school today is often a mismatch for a lot of boys. 

First, boys’ brains mature later than girls, even in the preschool years. Girls on average have an easier time adjusting to the expectations of school, especially the emphasis on self-regulation, attention, and self-control.

Second, boys are generally more physical than girls, yet most school classrooms, particular in public schools, over the past 20 years have become more sedentary environments with little movement or recess time.

Third, with the ubiquity of technology, boys out of school spend a lot of time playing video games and are susceptible to social influencers who may espouse anti-social, misogynistic, hyper-masculine beliefs. Hence, boys can fall victim to dangerously poor role models.

Fourth, boys’ lack of readiness (both academically and social-emotionally) results in them lagging behind girls from early on in school. The current college graduation rate of female (60%) versus male (40%) is sobering evidence.

While there are no simple solutions for this, a very important need to help boys in school is the development and constant presence of strong relationships with their teachers. And the author reminds us that ultimately it’s up to us adults to develop these relationships. Some ways to do this are for teachers to show an interest in what boys do outside of school, to provide scaffolding to support boys’ emotional development, to allow some latitude for boys’ (mis)behavior, and to make all students a partner in expected classroom behavior.

At Trinity, we are clearly at an advantage in that many of the above recommendations are already utilized by our teachers.

Still, all of us need to be more mindful of the difference between boys and girls and avoid the negative bias about boys.

Joe

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When my daughter started kindergarten in 2021, she came home with stories about her new and wonderful experiences: what she was learning, who her teachers were, what the other kids were like. Almost within days, she began telling me another part of the story. 

“The boys are always in trouble,” she’d say.

“The boys are always at the teacher’s desk.” 

“The boys are so loud and distracting, I can’t concentrate sometimes.”

I began to worry about my then 3-year-old son. What was in store for him in two years’ time?

As both a parent and an educator, I felt compelled to answer this question: What’s going on with boys in school?” And as I researched and learned, the answer became clear: Boys are not doing as well in school as girls. 

In Of Boys and Men, Richard Reeves provides evidence to back up this claim. Boys are twice as likely as girls to say that school is a waste of time, three times more likely to be expelled, and two times more likely to be suspended. In reading, girls are ahead by about one grade level, and reading and verbal skills are a strong predictor of college matriculation. So it should come as no surprise that young men attend and graduate from college much less often than young women. In 1972, 57% of college graduates were men; by 2022, only 42% of college graduates were men.

As I learned more and more about these alarming trends, I reflected on how rarely schools have explored issues that affect boys. By understanding what’s going on with boys—how their brains develop and what they are experiencing in today’s world—we can meet the moment to provide effective support for boys’ success inside and outside the classroom. 

One clue to help us understand what’s going on with boys in school lies in the significant differences in the timing of brain development of boys and girls. The first major gap in brain development occurs around kindergarten. One study shows that by age 5, girls are 14% more likely to be school-ready than boys. In Raising Cain, Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson describe typical young boys as having “high activity, impulsivity, and physicality.” This behavior is “often seen by teachers as something that must be overcome for a boy to succeed in school.” 

So from their very first school days, many boys are starting off on the wrong foot. This is exacerbated by female teachers being more likely than male teachers to view boys in their class as disruptive, while male teachers tend to have a more positive view of boys and their capabilities.

The gap between girls’ and boys’ brain development widens drastically during puberty. A typical girl’s prefrontal cortex matures about two years before a typical boy’s. The prefrontal cortex plays a role in planning, strategy, and executive decisions, inhibiting primal survival responses, and regulating emotional states. This offset in brain development and executive function has a direct impact on boys’ educational outcomes. Study after study suggests that the best-performing students are ‘good’ students … who have high levels of self-regulation, which is exactly the area where boys display, on average, a deficit compared to girls during adolescence. 

In The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt, identifies two other sources of boys’ recent struggles in school: diminishing independence and free play; and massive amounts of time online, playing video games, using social media, and learning about masculinity from what is called “the manosphere”—a miasma of bloggers and influencers often hostile to women and feminism. Manosphere influencers have large followings including teen boys. They advocate a limited vision of what it means to be a man. According to a recent report “the more a man subscribes to cultural norms about manhood that support emotional repression, self-reliance, dominance, and control, the less mentally strong and adaptable he is.” The more likely he is to have higher rates of depression, anxiety, and bullying and sexual harassment of women.

In the face of these challenges, what can schools do? A study concluded that teachers need to cultivate a positive relationship with their boys. Even when boys make this challenging, it is crucial that educators overcome their own frustration and remind themselves that the relationship is their responsibility, not the boys’. 

The study painted a picture of a successful independent school teacher of boys, one who: employs transitive teaching (“the capacity of some element in the lesson … to hold student attention in a way that leads to understanding and mastery;” builds a strong relationship; shares a common interest; accommodates a measure of opposition; is willing to reveal vulnerability; and holds students to high standards.

Alongside the academic program, schools must also reconsider advisory, counseling, and co-curricular programs with boys in mind. Schools must provide the space, instruction, and practice so that boys can develop a wide-ranging emotional vocabulary to both understand themselves better and communicate their feelings more effectively. For boys of all ages, we should constructively channel their high activity level and give them positive ways to express it. 

These are the first steps in a journey to help boys identify and create what Reeves calls “a prosocial masculinity.” Kindlon and Thompson suggest several concrete strategies for formulating this identity: Talk to boys in ways that honor their pride; be direct with them; cast them as partners in problem-solving; teach them emotional courage; use discipline to build character, not to alienate or humiliate; model and practice emotional attachment; and teach boys that there are many ways to be a man. 

My journey into understanding the struggles boys are facing in schools today started from a personal place of concern for my son, but we should all be concerned for all our boys. Equipped with knowledge of the current state of boys and some strategies to point the way forward, I am confident that independent school educators can work together to change the story. As my children make their way through school, I hope they will tell me more stories about energetic, engaged, emotional, courageous, and awesome boys. 

Is Self-Discovery Effective Pedagogy

This week's article summary is The Seductive Appeal of Discovery Learning, and it provides an overview of the roots of progressive education. 

In a nutshell, progressive education trusts children’s innate curiosity as the catalyst of their learning. Contrast this belief with traditional education that emphasizes the importance of direct, explicit instruction from teachers.

Which is the better pedagogy, progressive or traditional?

We’re fortunate at Trinity in that we have always embraced the best of both progressive, child-centered teaching and traditional, teacher-directed learning.

From the progressive side, we recognize that student engagement is critical to their motivation for learning. We give our students time to explore and discover – sometimes directed by the teacher but other times trusting the child’s innate curiosity. From our experience, awe in the classroom, a subject of an earlier summary, can occur internally and externally.

From the traditional side, we recognize that children need to be directly taught certain concepts, skills, and procedures. Also, it’s the teacher’s responsibility to provide reinforcement opportunities to ensure new learning is firmly stored in students’ long-term memory.

I worked in a school that proudly defined itself as providing a rigorous, traditional education: the predominant pedagogy was teacher lecture, student note-taking, and written quizzes and exams to assess student learning.

I also worked in another school that proudly defined itself as providing a child-centered, progressive education: the common pedagogy was student exploration, problem-based learning, and focus on process over product.

I enjoyed teaching at both schools, but I always had the feeling that each one too rigidly adhered to a particular pedagogy: kids need variety.

So, as we are now settled into the school year, check yourself to see if you’re utilizing multiple pedagogical options to support your students being engaged and learning deeply!

Joe

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The historical roots of discovery learning are as follows:

The Romantic Ideal of Learning: Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that children learn best when they interact with nature and engage in real-world experiences, exploration, and discovery. Educators and parents in this tradition believe children are naturally curious and are capable, in the right conditions, of constructing knowledge independently. This romanticized idea is deeply ingrained in educational thought and resists empirical challenges.

The Progressive Movement: John Dewey and others inspired a movement holding that learning should be student-centered and driven by children’s natural curiosity and democratic values – and critical of rote memorization and instruction in which students were seen as passive sponges. These ideas became deeply embedded in teacher education. Terms like ‘guide on the side’ vs. ‘sage on the stage’ were popularized, reinforcing the idea that teachers should step back. 

Anti-Authority Sentiment: Discovery learning is allied to cultural and philosophical mistrust of hierarchical control, centralized expertise, and imposed knowledge. Thought leaders like Paulo Freire and Ivan Illich portrayed traditional education as a means of social control, viewing teachers with suspicion and mistrust. From this perspective, explicit instruction became equated with indoctrination, while discovery learning was seen as a path to emancipation. In this cultural context, discovery learning isn’t just a teaching method. It becomes a symbol of freedom, self-determination, and resistance to authority. 

Cultural and Political Appeal: Self-directed learning resonates with the values of independence, creativity, innovation, personal growth, self-reliance, and breaking free of outdated traditions – values that are prized in western societies. This points to repositioning the teacher from authority figure to facilitator, with children constructing their own understanding rather than being told how the world works. 

All this explains the continuing appeal of discovery learning, yet this teaching method has not stood up well to educational research. Strong empirical evidence shows that explicit, teacher-guided instruction is better than discovery learning in three ways:

• It’s more effective – students learn more
• It’s more efficient – it takes less time and mental effort
• It’s more fulfilling – students feel successful and are motivated to learn more 

Given the research track record, why does discovery learning continue to have so much support? 

Overgeneralizing Success Stories: It’s true that some students thrive in a discovery-based learning environment, especially those who are already highly motivated and have a strong foundation of prior knowledge. But these students are not representative of the general student population, including many in under-resourced communities. 

Confirmation Bias: People tend to favor information that confirms their existing beliefs, expectations, and assumptions, while ignoring or downplaying evidence that contradicts them. This can happen when educators see some success with discovery-based approaches, selectively remembering those successes and overlooking things that didn’t work out as well. 

The Illusion of Understanding: While students are engaged and working hard with discovery learning, it can feel like they’re learning deeply, but they may be reaching incorrect solutions and buying into misconceptions. Students may feel like they get it because of the effort they’ve put in, and may be resistant to correction, even if they get timely feedback. 

The Constructivist Teaching Fallacy: It’s true that people learn best by integrating new information into their existing knowledge structures. But when teachers provide only minimal guidance, students may not have enough information to construct coherent knowledge.

The Appeal of Active Learning: Research shows that active learning enhances retention, but if students use trial and error to solve a problem, they may have no idea how they got there. Well-guided discovery and explicit instruction can still be highly interactive and engaging.

 Treating Students as Experts: The idea behind discovery learning is that since scientists and other experts work through discovery, students can learn that way too. But experts see the world differently than novices, bringing to bear extensive background knowledge and mental models that guide them as they wrestle with problems. Scientists do science and students learn science. 

Studies in cognitive science consistently demonstrate that students learn best when they’re first explicitly taught foundational concepts before engaging in problem-solving or exploration. Scaffolding and well-designed instructional sequences allow students to explore and apply knowledge meaningfully after they have been given the necessary tools. This doesn’t mean that learning should be passive. Well-designed instruction incorporates active engagement, inquiry, and critical thinking, but within a framework that provides necessary support. 

Developing Student Independence

This week's article summary is Are Today's Students Really Less Independent Than Previous Generations.

My wife and I had very different high school experiences, even though our schools were only two miles from each other.

My wife attended a very large public school (600 students in her graduation class) while I attended a much smaller private school (85 kids in my graduation class).

She was a straight A student; I got mostly Bs.

But when we went to college, she struggled mightily and I blossomed.

We’re about the same in terms of IQ and ambition. 

So, why was it easy for me to transition to college and such a shock to my wife?

I think the key differentiator for me was my high school placed the responsibility for my learning directly on me. Over my four years in high school I learned how to study (although through fits and starts), how to synthesize material, how to ask for help, and how to organize myself and my time. High school for me an apprenticeship. By the time I got to college, I had pretty much figured out how to be an independent student.

My wife conversely in high school was asked to follow along in class, fill our worksheets, and take fairly low-level assessments, e.g., fill-in-the-blank questions. She generated an impressive GPA but didn’t learn how to study or how to think. Her undergraduate college years were where she learned how to be a student. It wasn’t until graduate school that her performance and grades caught up to her ability.

We at Trinity are committed in helping our students develop not only a strong moral, ethical character, but also organizational and executive function skills and habits needed for success in middle school and beyond. As nearly all our graduates matriculate to private schools like the one I attended, they need these study skills and habits to thrive.

As our kids move through the grades at Trinity they first learn how to self-regulate, then learn to be attentive in class, and finally by fifth and sixth grade they become more responsible for their time management. In age-appropriate ways, they learn to be persistent, resilient, and independent.

As you’ll see in the article below, there is concern that high school students today lack self-confidence and agency. 

Yet I feel proud that what we stress for our students is what they need to be not only successful students but high-functioning adults in the workplace!

Joe

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Are adolescents less independent thinkers and decisionmakers now than they were a decade ago?

A good number of teachers in middle and high school report that their students are struggling to direct their own learning, advocate for themselves, and take responsibility for their education.

There can be big repercussions for students who struggle to self-govern, especially high schoolers who are preparing to launch into the real world where the ability to work and learn independently is a prerequisite for success in college and the workforce.

However, with a lack of research on whether adolescents are less independent than they were 10 years ago, that leaves anecdotes and media coverage to color people’s perceptions of adolescents’ independence or lack thereof.

Whether the problem is exaggerated by some doesn’t change the fact that middle and high school students need to learn how to be independent. Goal-setting, delayed gratification, self-management of emotions—these are all social-emotional skills that lead to greater independence. It’s the teaching of nonacademic skills that are essential to success in school and life. 

Although it may seem counterintuitive for adolescents, a major part of being independent is knowing how to communicate their needs and ask for help. Teaching students how to manage their emotions so they persist when tasks get challenging is also key.

SEL experts say there’s long been a perception among educators that SEL is a “little kids thing,” discounting its importance for older students. Most SEL curricula and programs are directed toward younger students, and they fall flat when grafted onto a secondary school program. Incorporating SEL into middle and high school can also be challenging simply from a scheduling perspective. As students move from class to class, there is no single teacher who “owns” SEL. Plus, with a heavy focus on coursework in the upper grades, teachers may feel they don’t have the bandwidth to incorporate SEL into their daily lessons.

Middle and high school students need SEL programming that is designed for their developmental needs. Chief among those needs is learning how to become independent from adults. Giving middle and high school students more responsibility and control in how their classes and schools are run—"choice and voice” in SEL parlance—is a powerful way to help students build these skills .

Being an independent thinker and decision maker has always been an important trait for success in college and the workforce. The notion of self-directed learning, and upskilling and reskilling as the economy shifts is going to separate people who are going to be successful from those who are going to struggle in a knowledge-based economy.

Building Agency in Students

 This week's summary is Giving Kids Some Autonomy Has Surprising Results, and it carries on the theme of developing student independence and autonomy in last week’s summary 

One of our goals as a school is to support the development of agency in our students. 

The formal definition of agency is as follows: The sense of control you feel in your life, your capacity to influence your own thoughts and behavior, and belief in your ability to handle a wide range of tasks and situations -- agency helps you be psychologically stable yet flexible in the face of conflict or change.

It’s an apt description of a well-functioning and regulated adult, which is what we hope our students become.

At admissions events, I express a simpler definition of for prospective parents: we develop in our students a strong, confident sense of self.

The article below reminds us through examples that agency in our students needs to be cultivate and developed with scaffolding, direction, and intentionality.

The last paragraph of the article was particularly impactful for me: Let kids do for themselves what they can already do, guide and encourage them to do things they can almost do, and teach and model for them the things they can’t do yet.

 Joe

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Many young adults feel woefully unprepared for life in the work force.

Employers agree, saying that new hires from GenZ lack initiative, communication skills, problem-solving abilities, and resilience. 

The reason? It’s not just social media and the pandemic. It’s also because parents and schools aren’t building enough agency into childrearing and schooling. 

Giving kids agency doesn’t mean letting them do whatever they want. It doesn’t mean lowering expectations, turning education into entertainment, or allowing children to choose their own adventure. It involves orchestrating the development of three important life skills:

• Identifying and pursuing goals that are meaningful to young people
• Building strategies and skills to reach those goals
• Assessing progress and making course corrections

The problem is that very few students have these experiences, which may be why the percent of kids who say they love school goes from 74 percent in third grade to only 26 percent in tenth grade. 

Studies around the world show that building in goal-setting, strategy development, and self-monitoring has a significant positive impact on classroom engagement, grades, peer-to-peer comity, and happiness .

Some specific examples:

At the start of a lesson on the solar system, instead of giving a step-by-step outline, the teacher asks students what they’re curious about, what they’re interested in and care about, and what they want to know.

Instead of using controlling language – You need to read this article by Friday – taking a reasoning approach – I’m assigning this article because I want you to understand how photosynthesis can be useful in trying to invent new climate change technology. Reasoning language lowers the shield and kids open up. 

Instead of saying, Here is an example of a good essay. Please go write one, a teacher says, Here is an example of a good essay. What is your goal for your first draft? and then monitors and coaches as students write.

A Dallas, Texas elementary teacher has her students set learning goals in every class and reports that students chase her down in the hallway to report on their progress, proud of what they’ve accomplished. 

Rather than ordering a resistant child to do homework, a parent says, I know you hate doing homework. I felt that way too when I was a kid. But homework can make a big difference in helping you master a new skill. We could work for 15 minutes and then take a break, or would you rather take a break now and start in an hour?

In the words of psychologist Aliza Pressman: “Let kids do for themselves what they can already do, guide them and encourage them to do things they can almost do, and then teach and model for them the things that they can’t do.” 

Building Resilience in Children

This week's article summary is How to Raise Kids That Can Handle Any Challenge.

While the article’s intended audience is parents, teachers can glean much from the article as well.

Our goal as parents/teachers is for our children/students to develop into independent, fulfilled, compassionate, and resilient adults.

But sometimes in care for our children, we neglect to give them enough freedom and latitude to make decisions (good and bad) and to experience the inevitable highs and lows of life. Part of growing up is learning from mistakes and coping with failure and disappointment.

Yet it seems to be in our nature as adults to rush to provide help and assistance to children, hence not giving them the opportunity to figure things out for themselves. 

Similarly, children are quick to fall into the habit of too quickly asking for help. 

As parents and teachers, we need to learn to trust our children/students more and embrace the journey not only the outcome of learning (and life). 

I appreciated the five recommendations from the article on how to support children: prepare rather than protect them, listen more than lecture, comfort more than chide,  collaborate more than control, and celebrate imperfection rather than expect perfection.

Joe

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The parenting trends of today are not setting up our kids for success. Overprotection, control, and perfectionism are causing more problems than they are worth. Research suggests better ways to connect with and guide your children—ways that serve their futures, and the future of society.

Below are five insights from the book Hello, Cruel World: Science-Based Strategies for Raising terrific Kids in Terrifying Times.

Preparing is better than protecting:

When we ask ourselves what our number one job is as parents, we would all most likely agree that we want to help our kids become independent and well-adjusted adults. We want them to grow into human beings who can take care of themselves, as well as others, and who can manage all kinds of situations, including ones they’ve never come across before. Ironically, many common parenting trends and instincts work against this goal.

First, we often think we should protect our kids from hard experiences and curate their environment so they are always comfortable. These approaches make kids less able to tolerate and work through challenges and discomfort. Getting better at hard things takes practice. We need to give our kids opportunities to practice dealing with frustration and disappointment.

We also sometimes fear for our kids’ physical safety when we shouldn’t. We don’t let them walk to school or play outside with friends because we have been fed misleading statistics about stranger danger. By constantly hovering, intervening, and protecting, we rob our kids of opportunities to build social and problem-solving skills.

We often step in and do things for our kids to ensure that they don’t fail, too. We take over their science projects, pay them for good grades, hire private baseball coaches, and put them in intensive acting classes. We do it because we worry about their futures, but this kind of overprotection and pressure can backfire, putting kids’ futures at risk. The pressure parents put on kids to excel increases the chance that kids will develop low self-esteem, use substances, and suffer from mental health problems. When we emphasize that success is the only acceptable outcome, we make kids less willing to try hard things. We make them less resilient.

 Listening is better than lecturing:

Ask kids questions. It’s simple, takes the pressure off, and is a great way to start a conversation. Asking kids questions gives you a moment to breathe, gives them the chance to share their perspective before you jump in, and can help clarify the aspects of the topic you may want to zero in on next. 

Asking questions also models a curious mindset, which is important for kids to see in us. We want kids to learn that life isn’t about always having the answers, that everyone is a lifelong learner, and that it is okay to make mistakes. Asking questions tells kids that we, as adults, are still curious and willing to learn—and that as they grow up, they should be, too.

Listening to kids—really, truly listening—is crucial. When kids feel heard and understood, they feel valued and loved, as well as calmer and safer. They become more connected to us and more willing to listen to our perspective. They feel less aggrieved. They learn through our modeling to listen to their friends and other loved ones, which helps them build stronger relationships over the course of their lives.

Listening to kids benefits humanity more broadly, too. From the research, we know that when people feel heard, they become more self-reflective, humble, and less extreme in their beliefs. When we deeply listen to our kids, we are helping build a less polarized, more open-minded, and more respectful society.

Comforting is better than chiding:

Kids have big feelings. Emotions are part of the human condition, although some of us are more attuned to them than others. Feelings provide essential information about our wants and needs.

For a long time, parents were encouraged to ignore, diminish, or chide their kids for their emotions. The problem is that when we communicate to kids that their feelings aren’t welcome, several unfortunate things can happen. First, when kids perceive that we are uncomfortable around feelings, they may stop coming to us when they are upset or in need of help, because they assume we’d rather not know. This can close crucial opportunities for connection and understanding.

When we chide kids for their big feelings, they may also learn to suppress or repress feelings instead of expressing them, which then makes it harder for them to listen to and interpret the useful information their feelings offer. When feelings are suppressed, kids are also not given the opportunity to practice different coping skills for learning how to emotionally regulate.

We also know from research that when parents comfort their children and regularly discuss feelings, children become more compassionate. If a child wants to do something nice for a friend, she has to be able to perceive her friend’s feelings and needs. She has to be able to read her friend’s face and body language and translate that into an understanding of what her friend is going through and what she might need, without letting her own feelings and desires get in the way. Studies have shown that the more parents talk about feelings, the more helpful and generous kids (even toddlers) tend to be.

Negotiating is better than controlling:

Parents often feel the need to assert themselves and take control. If we don’t, our kids will take advantage of us, right? But this is not what the research shows. When parents are overly controlling, kids tend to act out more and are more likely to develop mental health problems and substance abuse issues. Yes, we should be in charge, but we will be much more successful if we do it in a way that is respectful and allows for our children’s autonomy.

This notion is especially important when managing kids’ screen time and social media use. Rules and limits can be helpful, especially with younger kids. But with tweens and teens, research suggests that what works best is when parents set limits while also considering their child’s perspective and involving them in the decision. Instead of saying, “You can’t have TikTok, end of story,” we will be much more successful if we ask our kids what they find compelling about it, research the app along with them, discuss its benefits and drawbacks, and help our kids understand our concerns. When we restrict or assert without open communication, our kids may not understand the rationale behind our decision and may be less likely to respect it.

Blundering is better than mastering:

One reason parenting seems so hard is that it feels like the stakes are so high. We are expected to always know what we’re doing, always know what to say, and how to react. We are expected to be perfect.

But the research suggests that when it comes to parenting, imperfection is preferable to perfection. When we make mistakes, we illustrate to our kids that nobody’s perfect, so it’s okay that they aren’t, too. When we accidentally yell at our kids, we are then given the opportunity to model for them how to take responsibility for their actions and how to apologize. When we fight in front of our kids, we are giving them the opportunity to learn how to engage in healthy conflict. When we don’t have the answers to their questions, we can model curiosity and information literacy by inviting our kids to research the topic with us. We can show them how to use Google and how to identify trustworthy sources. When we tell our kids something and later realize it wasn’t accurate, we can be honest with them about it, illustrating to them the value of acknowledging our blunders and keeping an open mind.

Parenting is a form of activism. Through the ways we engage with our kids and the conversations we have, we can help our children learn key life skills—healthy coping, resilience, empathy, financial literacy, humility, open-mindedness, and media literacy, among others. We, as parents, can build a stronger, more humane world based on how we raise our kids.

 

Wonder in the Classroom

 This week's article summary is How Experiencing Wonder Helps Kids Learn. Its focus is how critical a sense of awe is in learning.

Our students are at the onset of a new grade: through this newness they will experience awe as they’re exposed to new knowledge, content, and classroom expectations. 

These elementary years are so enjoyable because student learning and growth is so dramatic and visible.

While we may think awe in humans is primarily an emotional experience, it also occurs in the cognitive realm. I still remember an a-ha moment as a sixth grader when I finally understood how to add and subtract negative numbers; I had struggled for days with this concept and then in an instant a light switch went on in my brain. I experienced both awe and relief (as I was the last kid in class to understand this concept).

Our students are innately curious, yet a sense of excitement and wonder help them maintain interest and motivation to learn new things.

As many of us know, for new information to be retained in long-term memory, it requires frequent reinforcement. Hearing or seeing something new one time rarely results in the information being remembered. Awe helps us find new ideas intriguing, but then it’s up to practice, including retrieval, to store it permanently.

Awe is the impetus, or, as the article states, “awe motivates people to explore things that stretch their understanding of the world.”

Our young learners are eager and excited to learn. Our responsibility is to offer them experiences and ideas that stimulate their awe.

Thank you for a great start to the school year!

Joe

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Awe is perhaps our most overlooked and undervalued emotion. It is what we feel when we encounter something vast, wondrous, or beyond our ordinary frame of reference. It is the feeling that washes over us when we hear a beautiful song, watch a flock of geese fly south, or see images from the new NASA telescope.

Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley who has spent two decades studying this emotion, describes three ways you might know you are experiencing awe: tears, chills, and “whoa.”  For example:

• Think of a moment when you watched your child do something beautiful, and your eyes got misty (tears).
• Think of a time you heard a song or a story on the radio, or read a passage of text, that gave you goosebumps (chills).
• Think of a time when you saw a stunning sunset or vista that prompted you to utter, “Wow!” (whoa).

For kids, especially, I would add this: wide eyes. I love seeing a young child’s eyes pop with amazement when they encounter something brand new—like a chicken hatching out of an egg, an ocean wave, a parade, a street performer, or a baking-soda-and-vinegar volcano. 

We can all find the extraordinary in the ordinary  -- the wonders of life are so often nearby.

Awe is more than an emotion of the heart. It also improves our thinking. That’s because cognitive accommodation is a feature of awe. Put simply, when we learn something new, we alter or expand our existing mental schemas to make room for it.

Cognitive accommodation is at the heart of good education: It is what allows students to build on prior knowledge to revise, expand, and deepen their understanding of a concept. 

Awe is sometimes described as a “knowledge emotion.” Paul Silvia, a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina describes knowledge emotions as “a family of emotional states that foster learning, exploring, and reflecting.” These emotions include surprise, interest, confusion, and awe and stem from experiences that are “unexpected, complicated, and mentally challenging, and they motivate learning in its broadest sense.” According to Silvia, awe is a powerful educational tool because it motivates people to explore things that stretch their understanding of the world. 

According to researchers, curiosity has a “fundamental impact on learning and memory.” When kids are curious, they are more motivated to learn and more adept at retaining information.

This is news teachers and parents can use. Engaging with kids’ big questions and helping them discover what sparks their curiosity is a concrete way to support their learning in general. The challenge is not to make them fall in love with all subjects. But what if we nurtured their curiosity with one or two? What if we paid close attention to what sparked their interest, what inspired their awe, and nudged it along?

What Fulfills People?

Thank you for an uplifting and productive first week of preplanning! So much productive energy, camaraderie, dialogue,  consistent messaging, and ample time to prepare classrooms -- especially in the EED -- and plan with classroom and grade teams.

For me, there’s always a mix of excitement and worry as we begin prepping for and putting the finishing touches on what’s needed for a smooth start of school. I feel the same when I host Thanksgiving or Christmas!

Yet, preplanning is professionally fulfilling with its opportunities for to learn, grow, collaborate, and socialize together.

This year there’s special aura of esprit de corps. Let’s continue to build on this momentum and inaugurate the year with energy, positivity, purpose, and, of course, fun!

For those of you new to Trinity, most Fridays during the school year, I send out a summary of an article that piqued my interest and that I hope provokes thought in you as well.

I don’t agree with every article. In fact, I  especially enjoy the ones that challenge me to reflect on my educational beliefs and even confront my educational biases.

This week’s article summary is What Makes People Flourish.

Finding personal and professional happiness and fulfillment is the life goal for most of us. Teachers are selflessly dedicated to their students, yet we need to ensure we’re attending to our needs as well. 

The French philosopher Voltaire is often credited (somewhat erroneously) with the aphorism perfection is the enemy of the good. I know we strive to be perfect in all we do for our students, but as we gear up for the start of the school year, let’s accept there will be times when good enough will have to do. Give yourself grace to not be perfect every day of the school year.

According to the article, happiness and fulfillment (human flourishment) comprise six key dimensions:

• Life Satisfaction and happiness
• Physical and mental health
• Meaning and purpose
• Character and virtue
• Close social relationships
• Financial and material stability

As head into the new school year with responsibility for 602 students, think about how you help develop and support these flourishment dimensions in your students (excluding financial stability), colleagues, and especially yourself!

Enjoy the final weekend of summer break!

Joe

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What does it mean to live a good life? For centuries, philosophers, scientists and people of different cultures have tried to answer this question. All agree that the good life is more than just feeling good − it’s about becoming whole.

More recently, researchers have focused on the idea of flourishing, not simply as happiness or success, but as a multidimensional state of well-being that involves positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment − an idea that traces back to Aristotle.

Flourishing is not just well-being and how you feel on the inside. It’s about your whole life being good. Things such as your home, your neighborhood, your workplace, and your friends all matter.

An international collaboration called the Global Flourishing Study annually surveys people to find patterns of human flourishing across cultures. Do people in some countries thrive more than others? What makes the biggest difference in a person’s well-being? Are there things people can do to improve their own lives?

The survey asks people about their lives, their happiness, their health, their childhood experiences, and how they feel about their financial situation. It looks at six dimensions of a flourishing life:

• Happiness and life satisfaction: How content and fulfilled people feel with their lives
• Physical and mental health: How healthy people feel, in both body and mind
• Meaning and purpose: Whether people feel their lives are significant and moving in a clear direction
• Character and virtue: How people act to promote good, even in tough situations
• Close social relationships: How satisfied people are with their friendships and family ties
• Financial and material stability: Whether people feel secure about their basic needs, including food, housing and money

Some countries and groups of people are doing better than others.

We were surprised that in many countries young people are not doing as well as older adults. Earlier studies had suggested well-being follows a U-shape over the course of a lifespan, with the lowest point in middle age. Our new results imply that younger adults today face growing mental health challenges, financial insecurity, and a loss of meaning that are disrupting the traditional U-shaped curve of well-being.

Married people usually reported more support, better relationships and more meaning in life.

People who were working tend to feel more secure and happy than people who were seeking jobs.

People who go to religious services once a week or more typically reported higher scores in all areas of flourishing – particularly happiness, meaning, and relationships. It seems that religious communities offer what psychologists of religion call the four Bs: belonging, in the form of social support; bonding, in the form of spiritual connection; behaving, in the cultivation of character and virtue through the practices and norms taught within religious communities; and believing, in the form of embracing hope, forgiveness, and shared spiritual convictions.

Your early years shape how you do later in life. But even if life started off as challenging, it doesn’t have to stay that way. Some people who had difficult childhoods, having experienced abuse or poverty, still found meaning and purpose later as adults. In some countries, including the U.S. and Argentina, hardship in childhood seemed to build resilience and purpose in adulthood.

Some countries are doing better than others when it comes to flourishing.

Indonesia is thriving. People there scored high in many areas, including meaning, purpose, relationships and character. Indonesia is one of the highest-scoring countries in most of the indicators in the whole study. Mexico and the Philippines also show strong results. Even though these countries have less money than some others, people report strong family ties, spiritual lives, and community support.

Japan and Turkey report lower scores. Japan has a strong economy, but people there report lower happiness and weaker social connections. Long work hours and stress may be part of the reason. In Turkey, political and financial challenges may be hurting people’s sense of trust and security.

One surprising result is that richer countries, including the United States and Sweden, are not flourishing as well as some others. They do well on financial stability but score lower in meaning and relationships. Having more money doesn’t always mean people are doing better in life. In fact, countries with higher income often report lower levels of meaning and purpose. 

The Global Flourishing Study is helping us see that people all over the world want many of the same basic things: to be happy, healthy, connected, and safe. But different countries reach those goals in different ways. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to flourishing. What it means to flourish can look different from place to place and from one person to another. 

Thank You for a Great 2024-25 School Year

This year's final article summary is Teaching is Hard. Why Teachers Love it Anyway.

As we come to the end of another exemplary school year, all of us are exhausted and more than ready for summer break.

This final summary is a reminder that no matter how fatigued and frustrated we can get during a long school year, our jobs still provide us with much fulfillment.

When I was about to start my senior year in college, I remember talking my dad talking to me one night as we watched a Yankees game on TV. We generally didn’t share our feelings and stuck more to topics like sports, but for some reason he was in a more reflective mood that night.

From out of nowhere, he said to me that wherever my post-college career took me, he wanted me to be happy and fulfilled. He said that as a dentist, he had been able to provide financially for his family but that the job of dentistry was more a chore than a passion for him. He told me to try to find an occupation in which I loved getting up in the morning and going to work. 

At that point I had no idea I would become a teacher. I was a history major at a small liberal arts college and assumed I would head to law or medical school after my undergraduate studies like most of my classmates. But during my senior year, I just wasn’t excited about going to either law or med school. I was a little burned out from my studies and decided to take a gap year to re-energize. 

It was a freak coincidence that I was offered a job at an independent school teaching middle school English and coaching middle and upper school soccer, basketball, and baseball.

Within two weeks of working with kids in the classroom and on the sports fields, I knew I had found my calling and purpose – the epiphany moment in life we all hope to get!

I don’t think my dad thought teaching would be my career, but I am ever thankful to him for his advice and support. 

45 years later I’m wiser, grayer, and more experienced, yet the passion I had as a 22 year old is still present.

I hope you’re as fulfilled as I am working in schools in general and Trinity in particular, as there’s no school I’ve worked in or visited that is as magical as Trinity.

Thank you all for a another great school year and enjoy summer break!

Joe

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There is no shortage of stories about how teachers have a difficult job. They work long hours for not a lot of money, and they are expected to meet a wide range of student needs – physical, academic, and social-emotional—physical, academic, and social-emotional -- with limited resources.

But the job can be beautiful, too. There are special moments unique to the profession—the inside jokes with a roomful of tweens or teens, the moment a student’s face lights up as they grasp a difficult concept, the feeling of making a real difference in young people’s lives.

 Education Week asked teachers on social media to share their favorite part of teaching. Dozens of teachers weighed in, with thoughtful, heartwarming responses about what makes the job worthwhile.

 The Lightbulb Moments: One of the most common responses from teachers was that their favorite part of teaching is when a student suddenly gets it. The times when students are curious and engaged in a lesson are what one teacher called “magic moments.”

• When you convince a student to not give up, and it is followed by a moment of insight leading to happy success, and then eight years later that student shows up to give you a hug and show you her doctorate...that is a heart-melting thrill!
• Seeing the 'I get it!' moment. Teaching math is tough but these moments make it worth it.
• Seeing my 5th graders' faces light up when they understand a math concept after trying many times. It is very emotional

The Relationships with Kids: The research is clear: Strong student-teacher relationships are key to student success on practically every measure schools care about. Those bonds and connections also constitute many teachers’ favorite parts of the job.

• Recess. Going out to play with the kids. Chatting with them about stuff, like movies, and pets, and vacations, and places to eat....you know, getting to know them as people.
• When kids get really into a book, movie, or video game that I share with them.
• Spending my days with kids. They are so much more fun than adults. So much hope, and intensity and excitement. 

The Instruction: Teachers spend a lot of time in meetings and doing administrative work. But there’s nothing like the actual work of teaching, teachers said.

• Preparing lessons! No kidding. I dream about my lessons in anticipation for enthusiasm from my students.
• Actually teaching! There’s so much on our plate these days with testing and more testing, dealing with behaviors. I love just being able to teach. And forget about all the other stuff.
• Seeing students' lens on a topic, their questions and wonders, their perspectives and curiosities—a collaborative learning experience, so to speak, where you teach and they teach you with their curiosities.

The Subject: Many teachers entered the profession because they are passionate about a subject—literature, math, science, art—and want to share that passion with students.

• The read aloud! That moment when you go to close the book and the kids beg for "one more chapter, please!!!" For me, it's a great bonding time; and I love developing a love of stories.
• I'm an art teacher because when I was a kid, making art was the only area of my life in which I had any sense of control. I enjoy providing a safe space for students to express themselves while also learning a discipline that will benefit them later in life.
• I’m a music teacher. Allowing students to express themselves, learn collaborative teamwork and responsibility, learn to both give and take constructive criticism in a safe environment where it’s OK to make mistakes and try again….while having fun (and still learning a hundred standards that need taught). It’s gratifying to watch students create performances through music from start to finish and seeing them light up at the progress they have made. It was one of the things I enjoyed coming to school for each day, and I want to share that with my students.

 The Lasting Impact: Many teachers said their favorite part of teaching is the knowledge that their work matters—and makes a difference in students’ lives for years to come.

• When they contact me long after graduation to let me know how much they learned in my classes. Really anything that expresses that my effort was not wasted.
• Seeing former students as successful adults. It reminds us why we do what we do.
• Seeing students apply the standards in my classroom to their own lives and seeing them succeed because of it.

The Benefits of Teacher Read-aloud in Classrooms

This week's article summary is Make Time for the Read-Aloud.

As most reading is done silently, children don’t get much opportunity to hear an adult (teacher or parent) read with clarity and intonation. 

There are many benefits to reading aloud to children, no matter what age. As the article states, the benefits of reading aloud to children has been supported by countless research studies for decades.

While engaging them in the joy of reading, reading aloud also helps children begin to understand how writing is structured.

They also get to hear the correct pronunciation of words and, if they are following along with the text, they can see how punctuation supports word syntax.

The article below provides some ways teachers and parents can prep in advance to ensure their oral reading not only engages kids but also helps them enhance their own literacy skills.

Joe

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Reading aloud to students during class time may sound like a quaint endeavor from a bygone era. 

But literacy experts insist that it’s every bit as relevant now as ever, and they urge English/language arts teachers—especially of early elementary students (although many experts espouse the practice as meaningful throughout K-12)—to make the ritual part of their daily instructional practice.

The “read-aloud” requires a significant commitment by the teacher—beyond simply committing to the act of reading aloud to students routinely. In its most effective form, the read-aloud demands thoughtful advanced preparation. It’s time well-spent, say literacy experts.

“I would argue that, of all components of reading, read-alouds have one of the longest-standing research bases. There’s a lot of data showing the power of read-alouds,” said Molly Ness, a former teacher, reading researcher, and vice president of academic content at Learning Ally, a nonprofit organization that supports educators.

Ness’s perspective isn’t new. The Commission on Reading, in 1985, declared read-alouds “the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading.”

The rationale behind support for the read-aloud is simple: The activity offers an engaging way to pack a big literacy “punch” into a single classroom activity, particularly regarding reading comprehension. 

“The read-aloud increases vocabulary and background knowledge, which increases comprehension. And the better you can understand, the more likely you are to read, and it becomes this cycle, an upward spiral of a literary trajectory,” Ness said.

Below, literacy experts and teachers share three strategies on how to plan for read-alouds that ignite a passion for the joy of reading while also boosting literacy skills.

Examine texts for literacy components: Ness recommends that, well before picking up a text to read to students, teachers consider its potential obstacles and opportunities by asking themselves questions like: Will the vocabulary present a challenge? Do students have the background knowledge to grasp the text’s content? Weighing these elements beforehand can help teachers plan a developmentally appropriate read-aloud accordingly, she explains. Try to choose texts whose content matches what is being taught in other classes. This strategy mirrors an instructional strategy a growing number of districts are implementing called “knowledge-building curriculum,” which is intentionally designed to grow students’ knowledge about topics they’re learning in other classes, including in social studies and science.

Choose texts that unlock the joy of reading: While read-alouds aim to boost literacy skills, their goal of sparking the joy of reading is perhaps equally important. Not every student will be attracted to the same text, but there do seem to be some common features in literature that children find engaging. A 2023 Harvard study assessed factors that contribute to “story absorption”—the mental state a reader experiences when fully immersed in a story. Students prefer information presented in a narrative format, regardless of whether the text was fiction or nonfiction. Mysteries and fast-paced plots proved to be engaging genres to young readers. Respondents said they were also drawn to characters who are misfits as well as those to whom they could personally relate.

Make seating arrangements a high priority: Seating arrangements can impact students’ learning experience. At the very least, all students should be able to see and hear the teacher with ease. To promote the read-aloud as a special ritual, teachers may consider emphasizing students’ physical comfort, some proponents of the practice suggest—perhaps allowing them to stretch out on a rug or use pillows or bean-bag chairs. But ultimately, teachers will need to assess their students individually and as a class before determining how to balance the twin goals of creating an environment for the read-aloud that encourages comfort yet supports students’ ability to focus on the learning activity. Presenting a read-aloud differs from a standard classroom presentation. Appropriate prosody—reading with expression and meaning, which includes elements like correct pronunciation, appropriate pace, effective pauses, and adopting different dialects—takes practice. Doing it daily, as literacy experts suggest, allows for plenty of practice.

“There are so many reasons to read aloud to students,” Ness said.

Are Educational Apps Valuable For Learning in Early Childhood

This week's article summary is Can Young Children Learn from Educational Apps?

Last summer, I spent a week with my grandkids in Hilton Head. Most of the time they were either on the beach or in the backyard swimming pool. In the early morning and late afternoon they played various card and board games with my wife and me.

What was interesting to me was during the entire week they never asked to watch TV or to use any technology. On the five-hour drive from Atlanta, they had used their iPads, but once they got to the beach, they ignored technology.

Even though my grandkids never asked for technology, we adults occasionally offered them technology as a distraction, so we could have some adult time. (You can only play so much Uno after all.) 

What further amazed me was how quickly my grandkids laser focused on whatever app they opened or You Tube video they watched. They were transfixed until we physically yanked the iPads from them. 

So, the article below intrigued me. Do younger children (my grandkids are now 8 and 6) learn from technology?

With certain parameters and enhancements, educational apps, including video games, can result in student learning. 

The article refers to the Sesame Street ‘video deficit’ effect: kids don’t learn lessons through TV shows, even if they’re ostensibly educational. They need human interaction, dialogue, and explanation to have lessons from TV or educational apps stick and transfer to real life. 

So, the lesson for parents and teachers is there is certainly a place for technology to support young children’s learning but nothing as of yet is a substitute for human interaction. (Take that, ChatGPT!)

I’ll remember this article this summer, as I endure never-ending games of Uno with my grandkids rather than tempt them with an iPad!

Joe

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Parents often hear about the dangers of screen time for children, but rarely does there seem to be a distinction among different types of screen time. 

In particular, apps on smartphones or touchscreen devices for children seem to be growing in popularity, even among young children. 

In fact, research finds that 90% of children aged 2 to 3 years use a touchscreen device and that infants and toddlers on average spend 10 to 45 min per day on touchscreen devices.

Many apps claim to be “educational” and some apps are used as part of the curriculum in elementary school classrooms. 

Can young children actually learn from this technology? Are apps more educational than TV shows and movies? And if parents allow their children to engage with apps, which apps are best?

Research broadly finds that young children can learn from interactive apps, but it remains unclear the extent to which this learning is transferable to the real world. A meta-analysis found that most studies involving children five years and younger show an overall positive impact of touchscreen apps on learning. 

Another study found that children under 6 years old can learn from interactive apps, particularly in math skills. They also found some evidence that apps may improve phonics skills, teach science facts, and improve executive functioning. 

The review failed to find evidence that apps improved social communication skills.

Although we have consistent evidence that young children can learn from apps, it remains unclear the extent to which they can transfer this knowledge to the real world. It is well documented that young children (particularly children under 3) do not learn as well from video as they do from real life interactions and do not transfer learning from video to real life, referred to as the video deficit. However, there is some evidence that children can transfer learning when screen time is more interactive such as Facebook or video chat.

So, research finds that it is possible for children to learn from apps and that engaging in apps with them may enhance the transfer of learning to the real world, but does this mean they can learn from just any app? How can you determine which apps are truly educational?

A recent study evaluated 124 popular “educational” apps and found that 58% of popular apps were “low quality” in terms of how they promote learning.

The researchers evaluated apps based on the following:

• Active learning – whether the app requires critical thinking or intellectual effort versus a simple cause-and-effect
• Engagement in the learning process  – whether the interactive features enhance or distract from learning, including whether the app has unnecessary visual and sound effects and distracting ads
• Meaningful learning – how relevant what the child is learning in the app is to the child’s life and existing knowledge
• Social interaction – the extent to which the app encourages children to interact with characters in the app or with their caregivers while engaging with the app

The following apps received the highest scores in terms of promoting learning: 

• My Food – Nutrition for Kids
• Daniel Tiger’s Stop & Go Potty
• Toca Life (Neighborhood, School and Hospital)
• LEGO DUPLO Town
• Zoombinis
• Measure That Animal
• Math Shelf
• Know Number Free
• Endless Alphabet
• Letter School
• First Word Sampler
• Word Wall HD
• Pocket Phonics
• Skills Builder Spelling
• Phonic Monster 1
• ABC Touch and Learn
• Bee Sees
• Kindergarten Lite
• Starfall
• Super Why

This research provides the following tips for parents related to apps: 

• If possible, wait until your child is at least 3 years old before trying educational apps. Research finds that although children younger than 3 can learn within an app, they may be less likely to apply this knowledge to the real world. 
• Engage in apps with your child. Provide some help and assistance without doing the task for them. Help the child to understand the instructions and pay attention to relevant features.
• When engaging with apps together, use a lot of language to help to explain the task to the child. Offer frequent praise and encouragement.
• Choose apps that require the child to think critically rather than simple cause-and-effect, such as an app in which they have to choose the correct answer rather than an app in which they simply press a button and an animation plays.
• Avoid apps with irrelevant or excessive features or advertisements that are not related to the learning process.
• Look for apps that teach children skills that they can easily transfer to real life and that are related to their existing knowledge, such as an app that teaches about letters of the alphabet.
• Choose apps that encourage your child to interact with the characters in the app and/or with you or other caregivers while engaging with the app.