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Stanford GSE experts discuss how to help children and parents redefine success

Wendy Mogel, Denise Pope, Madeline Levine and Dave Evans (clockwise from top left) are featured speakers at the Challenge Success event
Wendy Mogel, Denise Pope, Madeline Levine and Dave Evans (clockwise from top left) are featured speakers at the Challenge Success event

Stanford GSE experts discuss how to help children and parents redefine success

A Challenge Success event on Sept. 26 will examine the latest research on balancing achievement and well-being.

Parents, students, educators and the public at-large are invited to join in a discussion at Stanford featuring research on how to raise children who are engaged by school and are also getting an education that prepares them to thrive in the new economy.

The Sept. 26 event, sponsored by Challenge Success, a nonprofit group associated with the Stanford Graduate School of Education, begins at 7 p.m. in Memorial Auditorium on the Stanford campus, and will feature Challenge Success co-founders Denise Pope and Madeline Levine. They will be joined by featured speakers Wendy Mogel, clinical psychologist and author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, and the follow-up book, The Blessing of a B Minus, and Dave Evans, lecturer in the Product Design Program at Stanford and co-founder of Electronic Arts.

After the keynote remarks, Pope and Levine will lead a discussion with Mogel, Evans and the audience about the meaning of success. This includes: what are the common beliefs about success we convey to kids in our overly scheduled and competitive society? What are the assumptions and misperceptions behind these beliefs? How can parents and educators help students design their own unique and authentic paths to success?

Tickets are $10 for adults and are available at challengesuccess.org. There is no charge for students 18 and under.

The annual event marks 11 years that Challenge Success educators have been working with schools — collaborating with more than 100 of them. The Sept. 26 session will kick off the group’s 2014 conference, "Success By Design: Is It Possible?"

This conference is designed to broaden the notion of success that is based on high grades, test scores and acceptance into prestigious schools. The Challenge Success leaders say that adolescents are often compromising their mental and physical health, personal values and commitment to learning to contend with the pressure for high achievement. Many educators, mental health professionals, and business leaders have also expressed concern that this narrow definition of success is leaving young people without the skills to adapt, interact and collaborate in a rapidly changing world.

On Sept. 26, almost 30 middle school and high school teams — composed of students, teachers, parents, administrators, and counselors from the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Massachusetts — will gather for the conference. They will participate in workshops designed to help schools learn about the challenges involved in re-envisioning success and to develop plans of action for implementing change at their sites.

School teams of four to eight stakeholders were invited to submit an application last spring to participate in the conference. The teams will attend a Friday night reception before the public event. In addition to participating in the Saturday workshops, each team will receive a Stanford “coach” who will offer guidance to the school during the academic year as the team continues to develop plans to reduce student stress and increase engagement. School teams then re-convene next spring to assess the strategies that have been implemented and to discuss plans for the future.

Challenge Success, formed in 2007, grew out of the Stressed-Out Students Project at the Graduate School of Education. It works with schools and families to develop research-based strategies that provide kids with the academic, social, and emotional skills needed to succeed now and in the future. Through workshops, conferences, and presentations, it provides parents with practical tools aimed at helping them to raise healthy, motivated kids. It also collaborates with educators to develop school and classroom policies that encourage students to reach their individual potential and develop their true talents and interests.

Dr. Wendy Mogel is an internationally acclaimed clinical psychologist, parenting expert and bestselling author. Dave Evans is a Stanford lecturer and also serves as the Co-Founder and Director of the d.life lab. After 30 years of experience in the tech industry (Apple Computer and Electronic Arts), Evans decided to work in the university setting. He co-developed and teaches the undergraduate course “Designing Your Life”, one of the most popular and over-subscribed classes at Stanford.

Pope is senior lecturer at the Graduate School of Education, a leading expert on student engagement, and author of Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic and Miseducated Students (2001). Levine is a nationally known psychologist with experience as a clinician, consultant, and educator and is the New York Times best-selling author of The Price of Privilege (2006) and Teach Your Children Well (2012).


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