Games are intensely interesting to people, especially boys, and young to middle-aged women who are the primary players of phone games. It seems absurd to argue this point as the evidence speaks for itself. Why would so many play if…
Dr. Adam Cox
Connecting people with ideas for learning and living well. Helping to build purposeful lives.
Blog Archives
If Games are so Interesting, Why are Players so Dull?
Posted in Adolescence, Boys, Brain, Child Psychology, Play, Uncategorized Tagged with: ADHD, Boys, Games, Gaming, Gaming Addiction, Social Skills, Video, Youth
More Level Playing Field
Really happy to see this article in the New York Times about the United States’ most selective universities – including all the Ivy’s – working together to provide guidance to 9th and 10th grade students about what it takes to…
Posted in Adolescence, College, Education, Parenting, Teaching Tagged with: College, College Admission, Competition, Education, Fairness, Ivy League, Parenting, Planning, Selective, Students, University
How to Talk to Boys
Okay, so the first thing to know about getting a great conversation going is that communication has two parts: form and content. Most everybody pays mega attention to the content, while neglecting form. The content is what you are talking…
Posted in Adolescence, Boys, Child Psychology, Communicating with Kids, Parenting, Social Communication, Teaching Tagged with: anxiety, Boys, communication, content, conversation, Education, expression, form, Parenting, task tone, Video, voice
How to Reduce Drama, Improve Grades
There is only so much emotion to go around during the course of the school day. If all of it gets invested in grades, relatively less is available for the important stuff, like discussion, debate and sustained attention. So, how…
Posted in Adolescence, Communicating with Kids, Education, Executive Functions, Professional Development, School Tagged with: anxiety, Boys, Education, Executive Functions, Girls, grades, Humanities, Reading, Teachers, Teaching
College Admissions Drama 101
If I were a high school junior or senior, I’d throw in the towel. How many opposing perspectives do we expect kids to comprehend when it comes to college admissions? Many, if not most teens, are subject to years of…
Posted in Adolescence, College, Communicating with Kids, Parenting, Psychology of Youth, School Tagged with: Admissions, College, College Admission, Competition, Education, Fairness, Frank Bruni, Life Narratives, Parenting, Purpose, Status
Skill is Counterintuitive
For more than a decade new perspectives of skill have been the focus of books on achievement, education, sports, and the arts. Malcom Gladwell’s books are some of the best known examples. Another very useful contribution is Daniel Coyle’s, The…
Posted in Adolescence, Child Psychology, Education, Executive Functions, Parenting, Teaching Tagged with: Book, Brain, Competition, counterintuitive, Creativity, Daniel Coyle, Education, myelination, Skill, Sports, Talent
Failure to Launch
Speaking of boys and young men, is there any social epidemic which frustrates families more than a failure to launch? And with good reason. How frustrating to raise and educate a child who then lacks the interest and momentum to…
Posted in Adolescence, Boys, Child Psychology, College, Parenting, Psychology of Youth, Social Communication, Society & Culture Tagged with: Boys, College Admission, Culture, Energy, Failure to Launch, Goals, Immaturity, Inertia, Life Narratives, Life Purpose, Parenting, Planning, Purpose, Realism, Society, Young Men, Youth
What Do I Tell My Son about Tom Brady?
Like all New Englanders I currently feel under siege. The hate for the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady is at epic levels. Of course this has been going on for years. People are bored with the Patriots’…
Posted in Adolescence, Boys, Child Psychology, Communicating with Kids, Parenting, Psychology of Youth, Society & Culture, Sports Tagged with: Athletics, Civility, Competition, Consciousness, Culture, Education, Media, New England, Parenting, Patriots, Sports, Tom Brady, Truth
Our Weird, Loopy Understanding of Gaming Addiction
Our era is largely defined by fascination with games. All kinds of games. Sports enjoy high status as entertainment. The vast majority have multiple games on handheld devices, and boys crave time on gaming platforms or laptops which can…
Posted in Adolescence, Boys, Brain, College, Psychology of Youth, Society & Culture, Teaching Tagged with: Addiction, Brain, Competition, Depression, Gaming, Gaming Addiction, Life Purpose, Neuroscience, Online communication, Parenting, Purpose, Work
Searching for Authenticity
For two decades I’ve been wrestling with the challenges of youth, trying to address the most pressing issues in constructive and novel ways. The landscape of child and adolescent psychology is not flat. Specifically, not all issues or challenges are…
Posted in Adolescence, Brain, College, Parenting, Psychology of Youth, Society & Culture Tagged with: Adolescence, Authenticity, Boys, College, Education, Girls, Life Narratives, On Purpose Before Twenty, Parker Palmer, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Purpose, Self-knowledge, Values, Wendell Berry
