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…
Dr. Adam Cox
Connecting people with ideas for learning and living well. Helping to build purposeful lives.
Blog Archives
More Level Playing Field
Posted in Adolescence, College, Education, Parenting, Teaching Tagged with: College, College Admission, Competition, Education, Fairness, Ivy League, Parenting, Planning, Selective, Students, University
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
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
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
America’s Meritocracy Primes Unrelenting School Competition
First, a confession. I am an idealist when it comes to education. I believe school is more than a means to an end, because I believe learning is one of life’s great privileges. Having said that, I have to take…
Posted in College, Communicating with Kids, Education, Parenting, Professional Development, Psychology of Youth, School, Society & Culture, Teaching Tagged with: Competition, Education, Exams, grades, Meritocracy, Parenting, School, Schools, Teachers, Teaching
