Personal Best Parent Update
...from Donald F. Gately Ed.D.
July 5, 2017 Volume III No. 1
Summer's here!
Just checkin' in....
Hope you enjoyed your Fourth of July and celebrated our country’s independence. At this point I’m sure you are loving summer. We’ve been spending lots of time in the pool making the most of this fantastic weather. Our six-year-old, Juliet, broke her arm but she has a waterproof cast and it doesn’t seem to slow her down one bit. I'm sure the kids are having a fantastic summer, staying healthy and getting lots of exercise outside. I also figure they’re reading many books. Here's information about our summer reading initiative. The middle school library will be open on July 27th from 8-12. Stop by and let us know what you've been reading.
Below are some of the books I’ve been reading so far. I love having this extra time to catch up on my reading.
Rosalind Wiseman: Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boys, and the New Realities of Girl World
I’m looking forward to our book talk and visit from Rosalind Wiseman in October. Among the books I’m reading this summer is Rosalind’s book Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boys, and the New Realities of Girl World. In the first chapter Wiseman talks about cliques and exclusion. She challenges the reader to think about the ways in which girls become good friends and band together in such a way that other girls become excluded.
What I especially like about the approach that Wiseman takes is that she eschews easy answers. As a middle school principal of 15 years, I appreciate this because there aren’t simple solution to the challenges of adolescence. She points out that it is natural for adolescent girls to form cliques because it’s in these groups that they can be themselves, share secrets, hang out, act silly, and have confidence that they will be supported no matter what.
You should certainly read the book to benefit from her guidance. Wiseman advises parents to, at all costs, keep communication lines open with their daughters so that they can give advice as they make decisions about their friends. In all of their interactions with the children, parents must remind themselves of what the long-term goal is. Usually our kids know where we stand on their friends without us telling them, get your daughter to talk about her relationships and describe what their friends are like. Often in the “telling”, our children will come around to see our point of view.
8th Grade Superzero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
I just finished reading 8th Grade Superzero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. It’s about an eighth grade boy, Reggie, and how he copes with all of the vicissitudes of being a young teenager. He does something in front of the entire school that earns him an unfortunate nickname that he cannot seem to shake. He discovers a way to activate his own sense of power and he navigates several relationships with friends and with bullies. I particularly enjoyed Reggie’s interactions with the bullies in his life. There is so much to learn from the way that he endures the taunts of other kids in school. There is a character in the book named Justin that deserves our attention. He’s the popular kid who uses his social power for good. This is my secret dream for middle school kids, that our most popular kids would always use that power to lift others up, to make other kids feel better about themselves, to help other kids feel like they belong. I would certainly recommend this book to any middle school reader, adults too!
Broken Harbor by Tana French
Jericho Middle School
Email: dgately@jerichoschools.org
Website: Jerichoschools.org
Location: 99 Old Cedar Swamp Road, Jericho, NY, United States
Phone: (516) 203-2600
Twitter: @JerichoMS