As part of Mental Health Awareness Month, I have spent the past few days reading recent articles about the state of mental health in America. Many of them focus on issues related to children and how we, as adults, can step up to provide support in addressing their problems. It got me to thinking about how far we’ve come in some ways. In looking back on my own life, when I was a young person, the conventional wisdom was that children did not experience depression. Sad, lonely or withdrawn were … [Read more...]
The Times They Are A-Changin’: How Music Inspires the Courage and Hope of a Rising Generation
Each generation comes to reject, in one form or another, the conventional rules for getting along in the world as defined by their forebears. America last experienced this rejection in the 1960s. Having lived during that time, I can tell you the process is profoundly unsettling, scary, invigorating and yet cleansing. Sometimes the upheaval is so powerful that it unleashes a torrent of new ideas that engulf an entire society, a deluge that creates swirling eddies and cuts new channels into our … [Read more...]
Focusing on the Positive
The reptilian part of our human brains sometimes seems hardwired to focus on the negative. Perhaps it’s an evolutionary quirk passed along from our forebears as a means of helping us survive a somewhat undesirable and frightening world. Or, perhaps we can only attribute it to the fault in our stars. In any event, from time to time, we encounter facts that seem to contradict the obsessive, pessimistic thoughts of our inner Eeyore. Nicholas Kristof’s recent piece in the New York Times, “Why … [Read more...]
The Resilience of Children
As I continue to watch coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and ponder the long-term effects this life-changing event will have on the affected children, I am reminded of the many students I have worked with over the years. During my long career as a teacher, a school administrator and a university professor, I came across literally thousands of students from a broad swath of backgrounds and national origins, many of whom struggled with emotional issues induced by trauma. What I … [Read more...]
Musical Memories: Five Feet High and Rising
Like millions of Americans, I’ve remained glued to the television and other news outlets chronicling the epic deluge that Hurricane Harvey has unleashed across Houston, Rockport, Galveston, and along the Gulf Shores of Texas and into Louisiana. As a fellow Texan and an American, it’s been heart wrenching to watch the powerful destruction so easily wrought to the works of men by Mother Nature. As a lifelong educator and a parent, I am especially moved by images of babies, toddlers and … [Read more...]
