A Positive School Environment for Girls
To foster students' connectedness with school, the same University of Minnesota researchers offered numerous recommendations for administrators, including:
- Turning mistakes into learning opportunities rather than punishment
- Honoring accomplishments and competencies of all kinds, including helpfulness, good citizenship, improved performance, volunteerism, participation in decision making, and cessation of negative behaviors
- Reinforcing expectations for positive behavior and academic success
- Inviting all students, family, and community members to take active roles in the daily operation of school
- Creating and displaying a common vision of success
What Parents Can Do
For parents who want to encourage their daughters' connections in school, the study suggested the following strategies:
- Be a model of respect, cooperation, and positive behavior in all interactions with the school.
- Show interest.
- Participate in school events.
- Maintain regular contact with teachers.
- Be present when things go wrong.
- Volunteer at school and support school leaders.
Your daughter, too, may be giving you different--more likely, mixed--signals about how much she wants you involved in her school. The girl who used to enthuse about your being Class Mother, making costumes for the play, or demonstrating the dreidel game at the annual holiday party may become apoplectic whenever you show up on school property. This attitude is a normal reflection of your adolescent daughter's need for autonomy, but doesn't have to exclude you from the information loop.
More on: Teen Stress
From Stressed-Out Girls: Helping Them Thrive in the Age of Pressure by Roni Cohen-Sandler, Ph.D. Copyright © 2005. Used by arrangement with Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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