Welcome to the 2007-08 school year and all the promise it holds for our children. It's been great to have everyone back at school, and we've had a wonderfully positive and energetic first few days.
New school years are times of new beginning, and so when we gathered together as a school for our opening assembly, I challenged the kids to make the following new year's resolutions: to reflect The Country School values, to treat others as they want to be treated themselves, to do their best, to reach out to newcomers, and to do their part in keeping the school as clean as it was on opening day. You might talk with your child about these resolutions and others they will might and how they will be consistently implemented.
Also, I'd like to suggest a new year's resolution for each family: eat dinner together several nights a week. Let me explain.
This summer, our whole faculty read the book The Price of Privilege by clinical psychologist Madeline Levine. Some of you may recall that last year I wrote about Levine's very powerful work focused on the fact that upper middle class affluent adolescents suffer from the highest rates of psychopathology among any socioeconomic group in America. In fact, the rates of depression, anxiety and eating disorders, and substance abuse qualify as an epidemic as defined by the Centers for Disease Control. As Levine writes, “as many as 30 to 40% of 12-18 year olds from affluent homes are experiencing troubling psychological symptoms.”
From time to time throughout this school year, I am going to focus attention on the issues Levine discusses because I am convinced we are not immune to them here on the Eastern Shore, our children are potentially at risk, and there are things that we can do as elementary and middle school parents to prevent the kinds of maladies she documents. I feel strongly enough about these issues that I have invited Levine
to come to our school on November 8 to talk to faculty and parents. She will discuss her work with, and her recommendations for, adolescents from affluent families who seem to have every material advantage, who generally perform well in school, and who are quite socially adept, but who suffer from an emptiness that seems to defy logic. I have asked her to discuss the opportunities we have as parents of younger children to turn the tide. I highly recommend that you put her 7:00 pm talk on your calendar.
Parents who are truly present are one of the most powerful influences for healthy psychological development. As Levine writes, “affluent parents have to be alert to the fact that, as a group, we underestimate the impact of our absences and overestimate the degree of closeness our children feel toward us.” We can, she points out, “be over involved in the wrong things and under involved in the right things, both at the same time.” She goes on to state,
“kids love rituals and depend on them for a sense of
continuity and connection. Perhaps the single most
important ritual a family can observe is having dinner
together. Families who eat together five or more times
a week have kids who are significantly less likely to
use tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana, have higher
grade-point averages, less depressive symptoms,
and fewer suicide attempts… Eating together reinforces
the idea that family members are interested, available,
and concerned about each other. It provides a reliable
time and place for kids to share accomplishments,
challenges, and worries, to check in with parents and
siblings, or simply to feel part of the family.”
Enough said. I need to get home for dinner. Welcome back to school!