LCHS 7-12 PTA Book Club

We hope you can join our discussion! This book club is sponsored by the LCHS 9-12 PTSA, but we hope that junior high parents and others will join us. You don’t have to have a kid at LCHS to come!

Book: The Blessing of a B Minus: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Resilient Teenagers by Wendy Mogel
Date: Fri., April 22nd
Time: 8:30 am
Location: Penelope’s
Books are available at Flintridge Bookstore and La Canada Books & Toys. PTSA will get a percentage of sales.

Book Description:

Social-clinical psychologist Mogel concentrates on the hidden blessings of raising teenagers in this engaging follow-up to The Blessing of a Skinned Knee. Intermingling wisdom and guidelines from Judaism and adolescent psychology, Mogel compares the teen years to the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. As kids wander in the “desert” of adolescence, she advises parents to offer counsel and guidance, demonstrate empathy without entanglement, and resist the urge to intervene or rescue. In chapters peppered with true-to-life examples and humor, Mogel examines the blessings of a B minus, staying up late, hangovers, breaking the rules, and a variety of other teen topics, urging parents not just to look on the bright side, but to help kids benefit from the learning opportunities inherent in difficult situations. Some of her advice may be challenging for readers to follow: for instance, she recommends that parents refrain from broaching the subject of college until grade 11. She also encourages parents to let teens learn from their own mistakes and to respect their yetzer hara (aggressive impulse), while seeking balance with a sense of teshuvah (repentance). Mogel’s compassion and authenticity will ring true with parents of all faiths facing the tumultuous teen years.

Here’s a list of books we’ve read thus far in the PTSA Book Club:

The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids (Madeline Levine)

Queen Bee Moms & Kingpin Dads: Dealing with the Parents, Teachers, Coaches, and Counselors Who Can Make–or Break–Your Child’s Future (Rosalind Wiseman and Elizabeth Rapoport 11/06)

The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids (Alexandra Robbins 1/07)

Stressed Out Girls: Helping Them Thrive in the Age of Pressure (Roni Cohen-Sandler 3/07)

The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons From Falling Behind in School and Life (Michael Gurian 5/07)

How to Survive Your Teenager: by Hundreds of Still-Sane Parents Who Did and Some Things to Avoid, From a Few Whose Kids Drove Them Nuts (Beth Reingold Gluck 12/07)

Revolution in the Bleachers (Regan McMahon 2/08)

Uncommon Sense for Parents w/Teenagers (Michael Riera 5/08)

I Wanna Be Sedated: 30 Writers on Parenting (9/08)

Do Hard Things (Alex and Brett Harris 3/09 )

Take Back Your Kids: Confident Parenting in Turbulent Times (William Doherty 4/09)

Nurtureshock (Po Bronson 3/10 )

Teen-Proofing: Fostering Responsible Decision Making in Your Teenager (John K. Rosemond 10/10)

Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World( Craig & Mark Kielburger 2/11 )

The Blessing of a B Minus: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Resilient Teenagers (Wendy Mogel 4/11)

Past Books

• Book: Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World by Craig & Mark Kielburger
• Date: Wednesday, Feb. 23rd
• Time: 8:30 am
• Location: Penelope's
• Books are available at Flintridge Bookstore and La Canada Books & Toys. PTSA will get a percentage of sales.

Book Description: Imagine waking up every morning believing that your actions can make a significant change in the world. For everyone who has ever yearned for a better life and a better world, Craig and Marc Kielburger share a blueprint for personal and social change that has the power to transform lives one act at a time. Through inspirational contributions from people from all walks of life and moving stories drawn from more than a decade of their experience as international change-makers, the Kielburgers reveal that a more fulfilling path is ours for the taking when we find the courage to reach out.

Me to We is an approach to life that leads us to recognize what is truly valuable, make new decisions about the way we want to live, and redefine the goals we set for ourselves and the legacy we want to leave. Above all, it creates new ways of measuring meaning, happiness, and success in our lives, and makes these elusive goals attainable at last.

After you’ve absorbed the ideas presented in this book, your life may not end up as you had envisioned. You may not acquire a house on a beach in the Caymans, but you may find your toes grounded in the sand. You may not see an enormous change in your social life, but in your life you may very well see enormous social change. You may not find the person of your dreams, but you will help people young and old go beyond their’s. This book will open your eyes and change the way you look at life. Treat it as an invitation: an invitation to discover the power of the Me to We philosophy and to join the growing community of people around the world who are embracing this way of life.

Choice Theory – A New Psychology of Personal Freedom by William Glasser (Discussion: 12/03/2010)

Book Description: Southern California psychiatrist William Glasser, the author of Reality Therapy, believes that almost all human misery is caused by people trying to control others. In fact, he says, the only behavior we can control is our own; by the same token, no one can make us do anything we don’t want to. It’s only when we give up spending our energy trying to force others to conform to our ideas or to keep them from doing the same to us that we are able to live the way we want to. Glasser makes this somewhat difficult material easier to understand with examples and case studies from his own practice. For instance, he tells a man whose wife has left him that his only choices are to change what he wants her to do or to change the way he is dealing with her. While doing these things will not necessarily bring his wife back, Glasser says, it will certainly make him feel better. “When we actually begin to realize that we can control only our own behavior, we immediately start to redefine our personal freedom and find, in many instances, that we have much more freedom than we realize,” Glasser writes.