Schools
Experts to Discuss Optimal School Success
An evening of discussion on what research tells us about how to raise children who are engaged in school and prepared for the new economy without being overly stressed.
Parents, students, educators, and community members are invited to register for an evening of discussion on what research tells us about how to raise children who are engaged in school and prepared for the new economy without being overly stressed.
This annual event is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. at Stanford University’s Memorial Auditorium. Educator, teen expert, and best-selling author, Mike Riera, Ph.D., will provide the keynote address. The public session kicks off a conference titled “The Knowledge to Navigate: Strategies for Raising Healthy and Motivated Kids,” sponsored by Challenge Success.
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Dr. Riera will join Challenge Success Co-Founders Dr. Denise Pope and Dr. Madeline Levine to lead a discussion about the meaning of success and how families and educators can help kids thrive in the fast-paced world in which we live.
They will offer practical ideas to help families define success on their own terms. The evening will also help parents and educators explore ways to meet the unique needs of each child in order to promote student well-being and engagement in school.
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Following the keynote address, two students will join Dr. Riera, Dr. Pope, and Dr. Levine for an interactive panel discussion.
Michael Riera, Ph.D., is the Head of School at the Brentwood School in Los Angeles. He is a best-selling author, an award-winning columnist, an educator, a television commentator, and a national speaker on issues of children, adolescents, families, and parenting.
Dr. Riera is the author of Uncommon Sense for Parents with Teenagers (3rd edition published August 2012), Staying Connected to Your Teenager (2003), and the forthcoming Making the Most of Difficult Conversations in Independent Schools (coming this winter).
For eight years Dr. Riera was the Family Consultant for CBS The Saturday Morning Early Show and hosted an award-winning television show on the Oxygen Network, Life in Progress, as well as his own daily radio show, Family Talk with Dr. Mike. Dr. Riera has worked in schools for over twenty years as a head of school, counselor, dean of students, teacher, and consultant.
Dr. Pope is a Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education, a leading expert on student engagement and author of Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic and Miseducated Students (2001); and Dr. Levine is a nationally known psychologist with experience as a clinician, consultant, and educator and is the New York Times best-selling author of The Price of Privilege (2006) and Teach Your Children Well (2012).
The Friday night event launches a conference on Saturday, Sept. 29 at Stanford University designed to broaden the rigid notion of success based on high grades and test scores and acceptance into prestigious schools.
To contend with the pressure for high achievement, adolescents are often compromising their mental and physical health, personal values, and commitment to learning. Many educators, mental health professionals, and business leaders have also expressed concern that this narrow definition of success is leaving young people without the skills to adapt, interact, and collaborate in a rapidly changing world.
On Saturday, a selected number of middle school and high school teams composed of students, teachers, parents, administrators, and counselors from the Bay Area, Dallas, Sacramento, and Seattle will participate in workshops designed for schools to learn about the challenges involved in re-envisioning success and to develop plans of action for implementing change at their sites.
School teams of four to eight stakeholders (including the principal and at least one teacher, one parent, one counselor, and two students) were invited to submit an application last spring to participate in the Saturday conference.
The teams will attend a Friday night reception before the public event. In addition to participating in the Saturday workshops, each team will receive a Stanford "coach” who will offer guidance to the school during the academic year as the team continues to develop plans to reduce student stress and increase engagement.
School teams then re-convene next spring to assess the strategies that have been implemented and to discuss plans for the future. This year, over 20 returning school teams will attend the conference at Stanford.
The conference is sponsored by Challenge Success, an organization formed in 2007 that grew out of the highly successful Stressed-Out Students Project at Stanford University.
Challenge Success works with schools and families to improve student well-being and engagement with learning. Through research-based workshops, conferences and presentations, Challenge Success provides parents with the practical tools they need to raise healthy, motivated kids, and collaborates with educators to develop school and classroom policies that encourage students to reach their individual potential and develop their true talents and interests. For more information about this organization, visit challengesuccess.org.
Additional sponsors from Stanford University include the School of Education, the Undergraduate Advising and Research, Vaden Health Center, and the Office for Religious Life.
Members of the public interested in attending this parent education event are requested to RSVP. To RSVP or to learn more, visit challengesuccess.org.
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