Source Why do parents encourage their children to play baseball, soccer, or any other sport? Why, for years, did my husband drive our daughter Lucy to viola lessons? We know that most kids won’t grow up to go pro or make their living playing in an orchestra. Bill Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions at Harvard, tells me that most of the very serious athletes and musicians whom he admits each year develop new passions once they come to campus. So why, as a scientist, do I believe t

Source Joseph Daniel (J.D.) Unwin was a British ethnologist and social anthropologist at Oxford and Cambridge whose definitive work was the research he did with 80 primitive tribes and six known civilizations over a long period of time. The results of this research are penned in his 1934 book, Sex and Culture. What Unwin discovered was the link between cultural achievement and sexual restraint. According to Unwin, societies that practiced heterosexual monogamy were more succe

Article Source How new research on social media, mindfulness, and work can help you. Each year there are over 100 new studies in the science of character. At the VIA Institute on Character, in addition to catalyzing studies and supporting researchers, I gather the studies, distill key themes and results, and share that with the world. Therefore, rather than 50 people learning about the research findings in one article, millions have the chance to learn about findings from hun

Source - Character Lab When you walk into the Character Lab office, the very first thing you’ll see are the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Intelligence plus character—that is the true goal of education.” The quote comes from an essay King published in the Morehouse College campus newspaper around his 18th birthday. King opens his argument with an observation: “I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education.” A common mistake, he sa

The good news about today’s youth: 7 positive trends show them behaving more virtuously than earlier generations Source: Good News Network Have teens gotten a bad rap in recent years? They are typically characterized as self-involved, reckless, and only interested in “sharing” on their phones, but the youth of today, in reality, are actually behaving more virtuously than they have in a long time. Statistics tell an optimistic story. From smoking and drug use to unwanted pregn

Contributed by Myrna Lapres Today, almost one-half the world’s population is 25 years old or younger. Ready or not, they will lead our world into the future. Members of Generation Y (Millennials born between 1984-2000) and Generation Z (Centennials born between 2001-2018) are hungry to change the world and as parents, teachers, and mentors, we can help them. Both generations are influenced by less than ideal parenting styles (overparenting, paranoid parenting, permissive pare

Every parent knows the difference a year makes in the development and maturity of a young child. A one-year-old is barely walking while a two-year-old gleefully sprints away from you. A four-year-old is always moving, always imagining, always asking why, while a five-year-old may start to sit and listen for longer stretches. Growing Expectations vs. Human Behavior Children haven’t changed, but our expectations of their behavior have. In just one generation, children are going

Source They improve kids’ behavior too! When children do household jobs, you—and they—get much more than clean dishes or a crumb-free floor. In her book The Good News About Bad Behavior: Why Kids Are Less Disciplined Than Ever—And What to Do About It, author Katherine Reynolds Lewis recommends chores as a big part of that “what to do” about kids’ behavior struggles and lack of discipline at home. “Children gain confidence and a sense of meaning when they’re responsible for wa

Credit to Turning Halloween Green When I first heard of the “trick or treat” phenomenon as an young adult newcomer to the USA, I was feeling uncomfortable to say the least. Once I had children of my own, as a family, we either left home or turned off all the lights in the front, and hid in the back bedroom not wanting to deal with this, to us, unpleasant and backwards ordeal and not wanting our children to be expose to it or eat candy. Then one year it was clear that our thre

The GGS Positive Education model can be thought of as a road map of what people want for themselves, the students and their children. Good health, frequent positive emotions, supportive relationships, a sense of purpose and meaning, and moments of complete immersion and absorption – a life where a person uses their character strengths in ways that support the self and others, and that has flourishing at the heart. For more about the science behind this model, see the literatu

Article Source In classrooms around America, hands go up every day with the question, “Is this for a grade?” But perhaps a more pressing question would be "what is a grade for?" Today, the grades on a child's report card reflect not only a grasp of academic subjects, but also a variety of other factors such as attendance and behavior. Do traditional grading systems tell us what we really want to know about a child's learning? What’s wrong with traditional grading? A lot, acco

There is so much out there to read. Recently I came across such an article in the Washington Post. I paused because it was about our schools. But I read on because of the content. Our schools have been struggling in the aftermath of No Child Left Behind. Our teachers are being required to cover an increasing amount of content and to boost scores on a rising number of standardized tests. This required content is primarily geared towards making sure children pass standardized t

Can the brain continue to grow? It was once believed that our brains were developmentally fixed. This thinking led to the belief that as we age our brain becomes rigid and we can’t change how our brain processes information. In essence, an old dog can’t learn new tricks. Thankfully, current research has shown this to not be the case. We are talking about neuroplasticity, which is the ability of the brain to grow and develop throughout one’s life span. But what exactly is

Illustration by Lucy Davey Article From the October 2017 issue of Live Happy magazine. Victor Palomares uses humor and hard-earned lessons to empower the next generation. “Because of you, I am alive.” Victor Palomares has heard this sentence more than once. As a motivational speaker for teens, a teacher and anti-bullying coach in Los Angeles, inspiring youth has become his personal mission. Kids call him “Mr. P.” He was only in kindergarten when he found out his father passed

Sir Ken Robinson has spent the better part of the last four decades visiting schools that work. In Creative Schools (and in many of his previous works), Sir Ken shares out his learning so that we might all become better educators by exposure. Big Picture Learning has always been proud of the creative schools that make up their network; but they’re humble enough to know that there is much to learn from other creative schools around the nation and around the world. #enrichment

Playing board games is an excellent way to build critical thinking skills and checkers is no exception. Playing checkers helps children to become better learners by flexing their “mental muscles” – as well as helping adults of all ages to keep agile minds. With so many board games available, why choose checkers? Here are 5 great reasons: Memory Recall There are so many potential moves in checkers it’s nearly impossible for a player to know them all. But, playing regularly ove

Give your children the independence to succeed and fail on their own terms. When I was a new mom, I met a couple I’ll call the Jacksons whose primary goal was to raise their children to become achievement-oriented adults. While this is a common wish for parents, the Jacksons had a fairly extreme way of going about it. When their son was less than a year old, the Jacksons initiated a family policy that no one was to give him anything; if he wanted something, he had to learn to

Every student at Nashville Big Picture High School spends two days a week at a real-world internship that ignites their passion for learning. #happiness #motivation #enrichment #passion #creativity #video #personalizedlearning #education

Tony Wagner recently accepted a position as the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. Prior to this, he was the founder and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for more than a decade. Tony consults widely to schools, districts, and foundations around the country and internationally. His previous work experience includes twelve years as a high school teacher, K-8 principal, u

Wondering what positive education? The International Positive Education Network (IPEN) has gathered experts in the field to explain what positive education is in one sentence. Hear from Dr. Martin Seligman, the founder of Positive Psychology, and more. #happiness #motivation #passion #character #video #heart #education #enrichment