Michael G. Thompson, Ph.D.

New York Times Bestselling Author and International Speaker

News

Can Teachers And Parents Get Better At Talking To One Another?

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Michael Thompson was interviewed by Jessica Winter. The article appeared in the September 5, 2023 edition of the New Yorker Magazine.

Families are more anxious than ever to find out what happens in school. But there may be value in a measure of not-knowing and not-telling.”

The story can be read here: https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/can-teachers-and-parents-get-better-at-talking-to-one-another

Interview from the American School of Dubai

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Dr. Thompson flew to Dubai on February 5th to conduct  faculty workshops and speak to students at the American School of Dubai.  Over the course of three days he spoke to every student from fifth through twelfth grade in assemblies, he conducted three faculty workshops, and made three presentations to parents.  He was also a guest on the student television network, hosted by Alexa, a terrific (and well-prepared) interviewer.

Visit to the Ontario Camp Association conference in Toronto

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In mid-January I flew up to Toronto to speak to the Ontario Camp Association annual conference from my book Homesick and Happy: How Time Away from Parents Can Help a Child Grown. The combination of the words “camp” and “Ontario” has special significance for me because it was at a canoe tripping camp in that Canadian province that I first achieved a measure of the independence for which I yearned as a boy.  The summer after I turned fourteen I attended Camp Keewaydin, a legendary camp on Lake Temagami, three hundred miles north of Toronto.

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Workshop for School Administrators in Honolulu, Hawaii

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In late July, Rob Evans and I traveled to the Punahou School in Honolulu to run a workshop for school administrators from all over Hawaii along with a couple from the West Coast. Because of Punahou’s annual Student Leadership conference was underway at the same time, Ruth Fletcher, the director of professional development for Punahou, invited their chaperones, all educators from India, China and Japan, to join our workshop. It was a challenge for us to make our examples of administrative problems from U.S. independent schools relevant for, say, a public school principal from Japan, but in the end the realities of school administration, the developmental stages of students and the nature of teachers allowed us to find common ground.

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Visit to Chautauqua

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I just spent two packed and exciting days at Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York. I had been hoping for an invitation from Chautauqua for four or five years, ever since Kathy and Jim Pender of Cleveland suggested that I would be a good fit for the audiences there. Chautauqua more than lived up to my expectations. Is there any more enthusiastic summer learning community anywhere in America?

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Do Fathers Matter?

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In January, Dr. Thompson was the keynote speaker for the “Do Fathers Matter?” parenting conference at the 92nd Street. He participated in a panel discussion focusing on new research on fathering which included sociologist Dr. Michael Kimmel, the author of “Guyland,” Paul Raeburn, the author of “Do Fathers Matter?” and Columbia Professor James Curley, a neuroscientist studying brain changes associated with parenting. [Read more…] about Do Fathers Matter?