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Pay It Forward Inspires Community Volunteering

How do you teach empathy to teens? This winter, students of the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School of South Hadley, MA, took part in a three week interim course called “Pay It Forward” where teens were inspired to recognize community problems and collaborate to make a difference. The future is bright!

Category: Hampshire County, Hilltown Families, Take Action Tags: Community Based Education, community volunteering, innovative education, Volunteering, youth development

“What’s the Big Idea?” Challenges Kids to Think Critically & Philosophically

Using film to teach children about philosophy, “What’s the Big Idea?” helps to promote the development of critical thinking skills in middle school learners. Providing them with resources from which to gain philosophical and educational perspective on challenging life situations, the project encourages students to become empowered by learning to draw their own meaningful conclusions through powerful thought. Utilize the project’s resources to tackle peer pressure, bullying, and other tough stuff through philosophical discussion!

Category: Resources, Video Tags: critical thinking, Film, film documentary, philosophy, youth development

Hindsight Parenting: The Rise and Fall of The “Cool” Kid

The ultimate in ‘life is a marathon, not a sprint’ echoes throughout Logan’s column this week. Most of us have experienced the school factions, and the ‘cool’ kids. With Facebook, we even check out the former ‘cool’ kids from our old school days… many of them not that cool anymore! Being popular and being cool actually turns out to be a burdensome bubble that has the potential to curb development and inhibits personal growth.

This is a fascinatingly eye-opening column from Hindsight Parenting looking at how society sucks us into instant gratification rather than playing the long game. How do you deal with raising, what you suddenly realize is, your own ‘cool’ kid? Well, for starters: they need to know that appearance isn’t everything…