Madeline Levine Brings Wisdom and Experience to SPEAK
Madeline Levine’s recent appearance via Zoom marked a highlight of the school year so far. A longtime expert in adolescent psychology and best practices in education, Dr. Levine is the author of five books, including the recently published Ready or Not: Preparing Our Kids to Thrive in an Uncertain and Rapidly Changing World. For her SPEAK series presentation to CA, Dr. Levine focused on helping parents support their children and take care of themselves during the pandemic.
To get through the challenges, everyone needs to develop effective coping strategies. What are the healthy options we can all turn to “self soothe” and take care of ourselves? How do we better understand what we and our children are going through? Dr. Levine also recommends seeking out other parents who may be in similar circumstances. She hopes that all of us will focus on core values and on what really matters in such uncertain times.
For families to “come out as reasonably intact,” she recommends the following:
- Throw perfection out the window.
- Don’t set lofty ambitions. (That topic was also covered in a recent NY Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/realestate/coronavirus-lockdown-self-improvement.html.)
- Be forgiving and generous with yourself and others.
- Do something for others (service helps us feel better about ourselves while helping others).
- Spend more time just listening to your kids. Don’t seek easy fixes.
- Limit access to distressing social media and avoid the “Mean World Syndrome” that can happen when we become too immersed in the news.
In general, Levine also advised against doing too much trouble-shooting and problem-solving for our children, rather than giving them tools to figure things out on their own. Levine believes that too many parents are too quick to rescue their children. As she puts it, they seek to accommodate around their children’s discomfort. As a result, many children have not built up adequate resiliency in their lives, which has in turn led to an increase in anxiety and depression. Now, during this unprecedented time, when anxiety and depression are even more prevalent, Levine worries that family issues will only be heightened and exacerbated. Taking the time to have honest conversations and showing empathy towards all will help everyone manage more effectively.
Dr. Levine is also one of the founders of Challenge Success, a Stanford-based education group looking to emphasize social-emotional learning and implement progressive reforms. She noted in her talk that some of the changes brought on by COVID might actually lead to some long overdue educational shifts, such as more emphasis on project-based learning and de-emphasis on standardized testing and traditional grading.
We hope to have her back in the near future. In the meantime, here is a link to her website for more information: https://madelinelevine.com/
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