Spring Connections 2017

Connections
Spring 2017
THE COUNTRY
SCHOOL
SPRING SHOW: LIFE LESSONS FROM
SHEL SILVERSTEIN (AND FRIENDS)
What’s Inside?
Being the Brave Parent 2
Congrats Grads! 4
Spring Show 5
Education/Innovation 6
Fun Day At The Fair 8
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Being the Brave Parent
TACKLING THE THORNY ISSUE OF SCREEN
TIME WITHOUT FEAR.
makes good sense, but it is even
probably imagine, this risk
more important to guide what
they are doing with those
increases as the children get
older. Beyond video games,
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BY HOLLY NOVICK
Our world is awash in
technology, and as parents, it is
all too easy to feel overwhelmed
by the task of keeping our
children digitally safe. We are all
busier than we should be, and
the allure of the iPad babysitter is
sometimes too much to resist. As
our children grow older, we face
comparisons to other families:
“So-and-so’s mom lets her watch
YouTube!” In those moments, it
takes guts to do the right thing
instead of the easy thing, but our
children will thank us (eventually)
if we lean in and pay close
attention to what they are doing
online and keep their screen
content appropriate and safe.
The American Academy of
Pediatrics released new
guidelines this year with smart
limits for the amount of time
children should be spending
interacting with screens. The
guidelines are straightforward:
no screen time at all for children
age 0-18 months, one hour per
day for children age 2-5 years,
and limited digital media for age
6 and up. Limiting the amount of
time children spend on cell
phones, tablets, and computers
minutes.
This is a vital matter of quality
vs. quantity. While we would
much prefer to ignore it, the truth
is that the internet can get really
dark, really fast. It’s important to
understand just how easy it is for
children to see content that they
are not emotionally or physically
ready for. Here are a few
sobering facts:
Sexual Content. When it
comes to sexual content,
Psychology Today reports that
“children as young as 8” are
encountering inappropriate adult
content on the web. It has also
been demonstrated that the
unfortunate normalization of
such content is changing early
romantic relationship dynamics
and expectations in
psychologically unhealthy ways
(American College of
Pediatricians).
Violence. Time Health
reports that “approximately 90%
of children in the U.S. play video
games, and more than 90% of
those games involve mature
content that often includes
violence.” The age range for this
percentage is truly telling: 2-17
years old. The risk for exposure
to negative behavior models,
anything from bullying to murder,
is too high to ignore. As you can
violence has become a regular
feature in television programming
as well, and easily accessible
through YouTube and Netflix.
Dangerous behaviors.
Did you know that 15-20% of
U.S. kids intentionally inflict pain
on their bodies? According to the
American Academy of Pediatrics,
the most common age is 12-17,
but it can start as young as 7.
There are self-harm clubs at
schools and online, too, turning
the behavior into a way to
connect with others, to belong
(New York Times).
Adolescence is frequently
when children first experiment
with alcohol, tobacco, and other
drugs, with nearly half of U.S.
high school students regularly
use one or more of these
substances (CBS News). When
combined with the fact that 90%
of U.S. adults struggling with
addiction began using substances
before age 18, this becomes
more than the “everybody tries it
once” phenomenon (U.S. News
and World Report). The majority
of teen social interaction is
electronic now, which means
careful monitoring of texts and
app use will often alert parents if
their child is trying something
dangerous.

Also embedded in online
culture is the danger of
cyberbullying and suicidal
ideation, both of which are on
the rise. Statistics from TeenSafe
reveal that, while 87% of
children report witnessing
cyberbullying behavior, 34%
report being victims of it. Of that
34%, 30% have had suicidal
thoughts as a result of it. Bullying
and suicide are rapidly becoming
an accepted and “normal” part
of teen culture. Proof of this is the
wildly popular Netflix series “13
Reasons Why,” which has
provoked unprecedented advice
from the National Association of
School Psychologists, who have
stated, "We do not recommend
that vulnerable youth, especially
those who have any degree of
suicidal ideation, watch this
series."
So what do we do? These
are frightening realities and we,
as parents and educators, are
the last line of defense between
our children and all the
negativity the web has to offer.
Tempting as it may be to throw
out our televisions and devices,
that doesn’t solve the problem.
What solves it is courageous
authoritative parenting. The truth
is that the internet is also an
essential tool that your children
will need to use more and more
frequently as they grow older.
For all the negatives, there are
positives, and it is our job to
teach our young ones how to tell
the difference.
From a psychological
standpoint, there are four
recognized parenting styles:
authoritative, neglectful,
permissive, and authoritarian
(Developmental Science).
Obviously, neglectful and
permissive are not viable ways to
parent, but when it comes to kids
and electronics, there is real
tension between authoritarian
and authoritative. An
authoritarian parent is the “my
way or the highway” parent.
They establish rules, most often
without explaining the rationale
behind them, and any violation
of those rules is followed with
swift and severe punishment. Our
fear of what our children might
unearth on their cell phones can
lead many of us down the
straight and narrow path of
authoritarian parenting.
The solution. Authoritative
parenting, however, provides us
with the tools we need to set
clear, supportive guidelines and
keep the channels open for
deep, meaningful, and healthy
communication. Children of
authoritative parents understand
that expectations for them are
high, but they are willing to meet
those expectations because they
know their parents have their
backs. In fact, researchers have
found that “parents who were
more warm and restrictive were
successful in limiting children's
play of violent video games.
However, highly emotional and
anxious parents had the opposite
effect -- their children played
more.”
Boundaries are healthy, and
it’s also healthy for children to
push on them, sometimes really
hard. It’s when they test them
that our resolve must be
strongest. They are not just
testing to see if we’ll give in, but
also to see how we’ll handle it.
By reacting with warmth,
understanding, and love, we
show them that the rules are
there for their safety, but also
that we are certain that both the
rules and the child are a good
thing.
We should make time to talk
regularly with our kids about safe
internet usage and the
repercussions of being unsafe
online. We should monitor our
children’s interactions on social
media and online, keeping
phones and computers in central
family space rather than
bedrooms (despite child
protests!). Movies and televisions
shows should also be monitored,
so we can have dialogue about
new and challenging content.
Most importantly, we should stay
engaged with our kids and
invested in their interests and
worries. By doing so, we are
modeling appropriate and
healthy behavior.
Being a parent is the hardest
job a human can undertake, and
part of that job is helping our
children face the complex
technological word with maturity,
intelligence, and kindness. We
may find they don’t like us very
much in the process, but the
rewards will be worth it in the
end.
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SCREEN TIME RESOURCES
“New Screen Time Rules for Kids, by Doctors”
www.cnn.com/2016/10/21/health/screen-time-media-rules-childrenaap/
.
“Overexposed and Under-Prepared: The Effects of Early Exposure to
Sexual Content”
www.psychologytoday.com/blog/real-healing/201208/overexposedand-under-prepared-the-effects-early-exposure-sexual-content
“The Impact of Pornography on Children”
www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/the-impact-ofpornography-on-children
“Video Games and Children: Playing with Violence”
www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/
FFF-Guide/Children-and-Video-Games-Playing-with-Violence-091.aspx
“Little By Little, Violent Video Games Make Us More Aggressive”
www.time.com/34075/how-violent-video-games-change-kids-attitudesabout-aggression/
“Rates of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in Youth: Age, Sex, and Behavioral
Methods in a Community Sample”
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3382916/
“Self-harm study finds kids as young as 7 engage in cutting, hitting
themselves”
www.cbsnews.com/news/self-harm-study-finds-kids-as-young-as-7-
engage-in-cutting-hitting-themselves/
“Why Do Teens Hurt Themselves? The Science of Self-Injury”
www.livescience.com/11043-teens-hurt-science-injury.html
“Nearly Half of U.S. Teens Smoke, Drink Alcohol, or Use Drugs”
www.cbsnews.com/news/nearly-half-of-us-teens-smoke-drink-acohol-oruse-drugs/
“The Growing Wave of Teenage Self-Injury”
www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/health/06brod.html
“Addiction Starts Early in American Society, Report Finds”
www.health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/childrens-health/
articles/2011/06/29/addiction-starts-early-in-american-society-reportfinds
“Cyberbullying Facts and Statistics”
www.teensafe.com/blog/cyber-bullying-facts-and-statistics/
“The Only Parenting Model You Need”
www.developmentalscience.com/blog/2015/6/28/the-onlyparenting-model-you-need
“These 3 Apps Can Help You Monitor Your Teens' Activities Online”
www.today.com/parents/these-3-apps-can-help-you-monitor-yourteens-activities-t105483
Congratulations to
the Class of
2017!
Alanis, Allison, Andrea, Cyrus,
Eddie, Ethan, Fabian, Gavin,
Julius, Kayla, Londyn, Marley
We are excited for your next
adventures at:
Campbell Hall School
CHAMPS School
Crespi Carmelite High School
Episcopal School, Los Angeles
iLead School
Lawrenceville School
Milken Community School
MUSE School
Providence High School
Sequoyah School
Viewpoint School
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SPRING
SHOW 2017
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The Country School | 5243 Laurel Canyon Blvd | Valley Village, CA 91607 | www.country-school.org

EDUCATION
Our Seventh Grade worked
with Science teacher Mark
Bell on a project made
possible by a grant by
AMGEN. This molecular
biology curriculum is
geared toward high-school
aged students, and uses
professional scientific
equipment to allow for
hands-on learning. Among
the experiments was a
lesson using gel
electrophoresis to verify
recombinant plasmid! The
students recorded and
analyzed the data, and
created a presentation of
their findings!
N
N
O
V
A
Why Learning
Is Always Fun
At TCS
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The Fifth Grade combined their STEM project with their
Kindergarten buddies. They designed roller coasters from
found materials, keeping in mind the concepts of gravity,
energy, and inertia, and allowed their buddies to test the
results with marbles.
T
I
O
N
In Second Grade, the students
experienced a living Life Cycle
lesson. Each student observed a
mealworm larvae over several
weeks. They named their “friend”,
created a habitat, wrote down
their daily observations, and
observed their metamorphosis into
pupas.

Throughout Middle School, the
students collaborate to fundraise
for a highlight of their final year
at The Country School. The Eighth
Grade trip is a time of bonding
and connecting with each other
before heading off to high school.
This year, the students headed to
Lake Arrowhead!
In Fifth Grade, hands-on learning brings American history to life
through a dynamic program: “Walk Through the Revolution”. The
students made their own costumes, and, with a facilitator, reenacted
out the highlights of this historic period.
In the Tech Lab, Lego Robotics are the
ultimate combination of creating,
learning and playing
Each year in Preschool, we have a
special Parents’ Day. Everyone is
treated to a family celebration lunch on
the yard, and parents receive special
presents that the students created in the
class.
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COUNTRY FAIR 2017
Many thanks to Tracy Nini, our PSO Board, and the vast team of volunteers and generous sponsors who made
this year’s Country Fair such a success! From carnival rides to the water park to down-home Fair foods, our
community had a blast! We also hosted a bake sale, featured professional and student band performance, and
kicked off summer in style!
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