Parents » Carol J. Carter

The Importance of Family Dinners

“Does eating together really make for better-adjusted kids? Or is it just that families that can pull off a regular dinner also tend toÂ have other things (perhaps more money, or more time) that themselves improve child well-being?”

Those are the questions Ann Meier and Kelly Musick asked and recently answered in the New York Times article “Is the Family Dinner Overrated?”Â Meier and Musick conducted a study of 18,000 adolescents and their parents regarding how often they ate dinner a week and the well-being of the adolescent. Well-being was measured by three things: depressive symptoms; drug and alcohol use; and delinquency.
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Increasing Number of College Grads by Aligning K12, Business, and Higher Ed

Alignment is key to getting more students through school and into a fulfilling career. We need to align middle school to high school, high school to college, and college to career. We also need alignent between K-12 systems, colleges, and businesses. And most importantly between students, schools, and parents.
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Transitioning Strong: Using the Summer Months to Prepare Students for Next Year

Learning is a process. We often think of the K-12 experience as a linear experience as students progress from one grade to the next, but within the 12+ years of school, students undergo multiple transitions that break that numerical structure and make it anything but seamless.

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Closing the “Book Gap”: A Simple Step to Empower Low-income Families

The achievement gap is not an invisible problem. It is one that we can see and one that can be eliminated if we take action. Every summer underprivileged students who don’t have the means for learning resources or experiences will get set behind their more affluent peers. They also are more likely to return to a home environment every day that is not conducive to learning. Low-income families may have illiterate parents, no or limited access to technology, and a lack of literature — all influences that keep the poverty cycle going and the achievement gap strong.
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Is Being “Special” a Responsibility?

Everyone is special.

That’s the message many students have learned over the last decade in supportive classrooms and home environments. That’s why for many a commencement speech that recently went viral was such a shock (and for some a breath of fresh air). Â In her article “Should We Stop Telling Our Kids That They’re Special?”Â Erika Christakis responded to the speaker who told the graduating class:Â “You’re not special, you are not exceptional.”
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Finding “Fit”: Aligning Your Gifts, Talents and Interests with Purposeful Education and Work

Half of employees were either ready to leave their jobs or unhappy in their position, according to last year’s Mercer survey.¹

As we discuss how to get more students graduating from high school and college and into a career, it’s important individuals, schools, and businesses align their definitions of successÂ so that an individualâ€™s strengths and abilities are maximized.Â In school, success is largely measured by class standing and grades. In your career, success can be measured by status or money. But what about fulfillment? Purpose? Meaning?Â Contribution?
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The “Time Wasting Divide”: Digital Literacy Opens Opportunities for Low-Income Families

As more low-income families get access to devices and the digital divide closes, an unexpected side effect is left in its wake. The outcry for equal access to technology and Broadband is being answered, however, instructions for how, when, why to use technology aren’t included. This is causing a problem in low-income families — the families who are supposed to be helped by closing the digital divide — as the younger members use their new gadgets for entertainment, not as an educational resource.
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Starting on the Career Path Before Graduation: Arming Students with Real-World Knowledge

Internships were originally intended for students in the medical field. Doctors knew medical students needed hands-on experience working with patients before they were qualified to work on their own patients. Today, internships have spread beyond the medical field and become an important part of many jobseekers’ resumes in education, technology, writing, marketing, and more.

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Leadership from the Medical Community for Low-Income Students: LifeBound and La Casa/Quigg Newton Family Health Center Promote Reading, Literacy and Opportunity

Summer learning losses are a real threat to all students entering the summer months. Providing kids with educational games, activities, materials, and experiences during their summer vacation is crucial in retaining information learned during the school year and preparing them for the transition into next year.

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Earning Success: Why the Exceptional Get Results

It’s a harsh reality:Â average workers willÂ have a much harder time in today’s economic climate. The competition is heating up and those who are exceptional will have traction, gratification and fulfillment in theÂ workforce.

Average workers don’t put in the extra that sets them apart from other members of the team, whereas exceptional workersÂ draw energy from harnessingÂ Â their uniqueÂ abilities. It may sound like becoming an exceptional worker will be much more depleting than putting in average effort, but, in fact, it’s the opposite. People who feel “very successful” and “completely successful” at work are twice as likely to say they are happy than those who only feel “somewhat successful,” with their level of income making no difference in their levels of happiness, according to Arthur Brooks in the article “America and the Value of ‘Earned Success.'”¹ Exceptional people are driven to become exceptional for its intrinsic value (in happiness and fulfillment), not extrinsic value (in dollars and status).
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