What Kids Need: Music

What Kids Need: Music Not just music, playing an instrument or learning to sing.  As a high school band director for many years, I can say with authority that the kids involved in band, orchestra, or choir are good.  They often take private lessons and practice their...

What Kids Need: Good Influence

What Kids Need: Good Influence Positive influence seems like a no-brainer; however, often, we aren’t fully aware of who our kids are spending time around.  We know that the company that we keep influences us, but do we know details about our kids’...

What Kids Need: School Boundaries

What Kids Need: School Boundaries We’ve been discussing the interpretations of the 40 Developmental Assets for Youth from the Search-Institute.  Today we’re looking at School Boundaries.  In general, schools are good about establishing the various rules...

What Kids Need: Family Boundaries

What Kids Need: Family Boundaries This series on What Kids Need comes from the research and survey data of the Minneapolis-based, Search-Institute.  Search has surveyed nearly five million kids from 6th-12th grades to determine what kids need to grow up to be caring,...

What Kids Need: Safety

What Kids Need: Safety Every child has the right to feel safe at home, at school, and in the neighborhood.  It is a basic human need for all of us, but for kids, it is something that we, as parents and adults, need to ensure for them.  It seems pretty basic to say...

What Kids Need: Service to Others

What Kids Need: Service to Others It is a proven research fact that kids who serve the community one hour or more a week are more resilient to the risk-related behaviors of their youth.  I challenge our parents today to get their kids involved in a community service...

What Kids Need: Useful Roles

What Kids Need: Useful Roles Do you want to add value to a young person?  Please give them a valuable role in a community event, school event, or other such program or meeting.  Give a function to a young person that would typically go to an older adult.  First, you...

What Kids Need: Community Recognition

What Kids Need: Community Recognition When my dad was older, he told me about when he went to the mall and sat on a bench to rest.  As people walked by this busy part of the mall, he noticed that no one, not one person, looked at him.  The image stuck with me, and I...

What Kids Need: Parents to Keep Track

What Kids Need: Parents to Keep Track As a school administrator for many years, at any one time, I was working with around 700+ kids.  I would look at their attendance, grades, and all aspects of their school life that I could, along with my other duties.  When I...