The SCCoop: Words on Wellness, March 2022

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From the President...

Please join our book club tomorrow, Friday, March 18 at 12 pm to get ready for Julie Lythcott-Haims’ return to Northern Virginia. You do not need to have read the book...but you just might want to after the talk and before Julie’s visit. See below for details.

We welcome all community members to our Annual Meeting on Thursday, May 19 at 7 pm at the McLean Community Center. We’ll reflect on our year, welcome new members, and look ahead to next year!

What can we do for you, your family, and your students? As always, we want to hear from you! Let us know how we can help!

Elizabeth Hale, President

Upcoming Events

SCC Book Talk

In anticipation of best-selling author Julie Lythcott-Haims’ April visit to McLean to present the talk, “Throw out the Checklisted Childhood: Tips and Strategies for Raising Successful Kids,” McLean psychologists Heather Tedesco, PhD, and Melissa Sporn, PhD, will host a virtual parent book club on Julie’s most-acclaimed book, How to Raise an Adult on Friday, March 18, at noon. Dr. Tedesco and Dr. Sporn will share their thoughts on the aspects of the book that are especially relevant to families in our area. Click here to purchase the book from bookshop.org, which can connect you with a local bookstore anywhere in the country.

Find the Zoom link on our website just prior to the event.

How to Raise an Adult Author Returns April 26

We are excited to welcome Julie back to McLean on April 26! Returning this time in a partnership with The Potomac School, the focus of Julie’s talk “Throw Out the Checklisted Childhood: Tips and Strategies for Raising Successful Kids” combines the insight from her first book How to Raise an Adult and her findings from her latest book Your Turn: How to be an Adult.

Drawing on research, on conversations with admissions officers, educators, and employers, and on her own insights as a mother and as a student dean, Julie highlights the ways in which overparenting harms children, their stressed-out parents, and society at large.

While empathizing with the parental hopes and, especially, fears that lead to overhelping, Julie offers practical strategies that underline the importance of allowing children to make their own mistakes and develop the resilience, resourcefulness, and inner determination necessary for success.

When Julie visited in 2016, it was to a packed, standing-room only auditorium (and some crazy thunderstorm and power outage, for those who remember!). Julie is an amazing and entertaining speaker; she tailors her talks to her audience (and comes to us from Palo Alto, California, a very similar community to ours), and shares actionable ideas from her own experience as a parent, college dean of freshman, and woman of color.

This event is free to the public and is recommended for parents and young adults. Space is limited and registration is required. To register and for more information, visit the SCC website. This program will also be livestreamed for anyone unable to attend in person.

State of the Kids: Uniting for Youth Mental Health, a Nationwide Virtual Event*

Tuesday, March 22, 8 pm

A group of well-known youth advocates is hosting a special event to collectively support our young people in this present moment. We invite parents and caregivers, students, educators, health care professionals, community leaders, and all of you to take part in a national virtual conversation to chart a healthier way forward.

Hear from young people about the state of their mental health, and you’ll also learn practical steps and inspiring strategies for supporting health at home, at school, and in our greater communities from these thought leaders:

Deborah Roberts, Award-winning ABC News journalist
Dr. Lisa Damour, Psychologist, Ask Lisa Podcast Host, and New York Times Bestselling Author
Julie Lythcott-Haims, Former Stanford Dean and Author of How to Raise an Adult
Jason Gant, Learning Designer and Mindfulness Coach
Meghna Singh, University of Michigan Student and Mental Health Advocate
Rick Weissbourd, Founder of Making Caring Common and Senior Lecturer at Harvard

Following the event, you will receive a free toolkit for youth mental health support as well as a complimentary viewing of one of our films, including: Race to Nowhere, Beyond Measure, or Chasing Childhood.

NOTE: This is NOT an SCC event, but one we are promoting because it aligns with our mission

SCC in the Community

Middle School Forum Returns to In-Person this Spring

Our Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) has been planning, training, and getting to know new members to hold a more traditional Middle School Forum (MSF) for our two middle schools. Check out their teaser video above! Middle School Forum is a program where YAC students from Langley and McLean High Schools visit Cooper and Longfellow Middle Schools to talk everything high school. Middle schoolers can ask about academics, athletics, social events in and out of school, boys, girls, lunch time--anything. YAC-ers answer with candor and speak from their individual perspectives, showing middle schoolers that there are many different ways to navigate high school, and choices are theirs to make. YAC responses point to the value of knowing yourself, making choices that are right for you, and being prepared to deal with the consequences of your actions.

Sixth Grade Ethics Day

Sixth Grade Ethics Day also returns mostly in-person this year! The SCC Board has been working with elementary counselors to see which schools are able to host Sixth Grade Ethics Day at their schools. Our longtime facilitator and former Board member, Dr. Melissa Sporn, will work with volunteers to run our Could-Should-Would Model of ethical decision making with sixth graders at several elementary schools.

McLean Day 2022

Come visit our tent at McLean Day 2022 on May 21 at Lewinsville Park. We’ll be sharing our mission, some of our favorite parenting advice handouts, and fan-favorite, face painting!

Reading List

7 ways parents can help kids persist at tasks they resist

By Phyllis Fagell, Washington Post, March 15, 2022

When music teacher Monica Hepburn noticed a few weeks ago that her students were progressing slower than expected — and that some were doing the bare minimum — she asked them to rate their effort on a scale of one to 10 and to think about whether they were on track to reach their goals. “Everyone wanted to get a trophy at the county music festival,” said Hepburn, who works at North Bethesda Middle School in Maryland, “but they didn’t realize they needed to work hard and practice.” As one eighth-grade boy told her: “I don’t think we know how to get there.”