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. (more…)
Michael Thompson, Ph.D.
Visit to Chautauqua
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?
Separating Parent & Teen College Dreams
Dr. Thompson was interviewed by Randi Mazzella for her article about college-bound teens and their parents, and the way in which the parents have to think about their dreams and their teens’ college dreams. (more…)
Do Fathers Matter?
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. (more…)
How to Handle Homesickness
Dr. Thompson was interviewed by Lisa Flam in a piece titled Those Tear-Stained Letters Home: How to Handle Homesickness for ABC News. (more…)
The Importance of Summer Camp for Kids and Teens
Dr. Thompson was recently interviewed by NYMetroParents about the value of summer camp for children. (more…)
