If you’ve been around kids recently, you’ve seen Twilight and Harry Potter fandom splattered on T-shirts, lockers, and notebooks. Reading teacher Cindi Rigsbee’s wrote about the delight it gave her to see kids so interested in literary characters in her blog, “Picture This: Helping Readers Flex Their Imaginations.” That was until she realized the kids weren’t advertising their connection to a character, but to the actors who play the characters.

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The results from two Kaiser Family Foundation surveys found minority children spend approximately 4.5 more hours a day using mobile devices, computers, TVs, and other media than white kids. Experts theorize the percentage difference may stem from the fact minority children are more likely to live in dangerous neighborhoods that require them to stay inside. Minority children are also more likely to have working parents. Children may use media due to lack of personal engagement.  If we can encourage children in these families—as well as their parent or caregiver—to encourage educational and mind-challenging games and activities, we could turn this into an advantage as opposed to a disadvantage in low in-come neighborhoods.

Over the last few years, we’ve been disappointed about the behavior of many men in positions of power.  Arianna Huffington joked that if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Brothers and Sisters, they never would have gone under.  Seriously though, the S&L crisis, the financial crisis which sent markets around the world plummeting and the scandals of the last few weeks of some of our most influential political leaders, makes us wonder who is a good role model for today’s young men? Indeed, percentage of boys who go to college right now is 44% compared to 63% of girls who attend college. Many of these boys drop out, serve time in prison and the very lucky ones become like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Below are some ways that teachers, parents and students can begin to understand what is at the heart of responsible adult behavior. After the good fortune of being raised by four older brothers who are exemplary people, husbands and fathers, I want to share with you what they shared with me growing up.   I was fortunate to develop a strong sense of self, the ability to say “no,” maintain strong boundaries and the fortitude to follow my dreams.

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Rebecca Alber, in her blog “How to Inspire Your Students to Read this Summer,” says she wasn’t one of those teachers who was concerned with getting her books back or even back in one piece at the end of summer vacation. In her experience, many underprivileged students would say they had 15 or 20 books in their home: mostly ones they’ve read or that are for younger children.

Alber developed seven tips for teachers to inspire children to read, even in the poorest communities where literacy has the ability to one day set them free from constraints put on by poverty. LifeBound’s books are the nation’s leading resource in supplemental instruction—books on Leadership, People Smarts, Critical and Creative Thinking and our new book, Dollars and Sense:  How to be Smart About Money are great summer reads for kids from fifth through twelfth grade. The following is an adaptation of Alber’s insights:

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