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Who Are the ‘Characters’ That Make Your Town Interesting?

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Who Are the ‘Characters’ That Make Your Town Interesting?

Note: This is our last Student Opinion question of the 2018-19 school year.

Who are the people in your school or town that make your area interesting? What makes them stand out? What role do they play in your community?

In “‘I’m Weird, but I Get Results’: Have You Met This Wizard on the Subway?” Mary Pilon writes about one such character who acts as the “warlock of Brooklyn,” casting “spells” and offering wise words to New York City residents:

In New York, a city where anyone can be anything, Devin Person is a self-proclaimed professional wizard.

On a Sunday afternoon in his Brooklyn neighborhood, Greenpoint, Mr. Person — looking more Merlin than Harry Potter, with his plush robe and scraggly white beard — led about three dozen people in meditation.

He encouraged them to “sample the flavors and energy of each cloud formation as if you were walking around Costco’s different free sample stations,” to float “like Michael Phelps diving into the pool” and to wear a smile “like the sun on the Raisin Bran box.”

As a modern “wizard,” Mr. Person, 33, holds group sessions, like the recent meditation and Wizarding Hour in Greenpoint. He speaks to companies. He officiates weddings. He reads tarot and performs hypnosis. He hosts a podcast. He once planned an “edible enhanced” walkabout in Central Park.

He will also show up if someone wants to “have fun hanging out with a wizard.”

The article continues:

“Wizards are people helpers,” he said. “They are who the hero encounters on their journey, and they’re able to give the hero a bit of advice, maybe a magical artifact, some sort of assistance that helps the hero get over their obstacle and on their journey.”

Mr. Person had long been interested in the occult and spirituality when, in 2014, he decided to “hatch an egg” of something to pursue alongside his day job at the website creator Squarespace, now as an associate product manager.

So, after making his way through an exhaustive list of new-age books, Mr. Person started holding “occult consulting” sessions with friends and friends of friends, eventually expanding to dozens and dozens of clients. He described his transformation as “reaching out through time and space and across the dimensional barrier to make contact with the most wizardly possibility of myself.”

That meant, he said, functioning as a mentor and listener. (The word “wizard” comes from the Middle English “wys,” or “wise.”)

Mr. Person posted on Facebook that he was offering coaching services. Not long after, a childhood friend from Indiana reached out.

The friend, Sahil Bhatia, said he was “in a deep depression and crisis of faith.” The two men discussed strategies like “set five goals per day” that Mr. Bhatia could use to feel fulfilled.

“The lower pressure and informal nature of it was much different,” Mr. Bhatia said. “That was really helpful to me.”

Mr. Person stresses that he is not a therapist and that he generally offers just one session to participants, which he frames as, “This is the moment in your life where you encounter a wizard, and this has the potential to change a lot and we’re going to talk about it.”

He added, “I’m weird, but I get results.”

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

— What do you think about Mr. Person’s role as a “professional wizard”? If you encountered him on the street, what advice, spell or other help would you ask for?

— Would you ever like to take on such a role in your town? If so, what persona would you inhabit? What would your costume look like? What kinds of services, help or advice would you offer?

— Who are the “characters” that make your town interesting? Why do you find them so intriguing?

— Do you think every place needs “people helpers” like Mr. Person? Why or why not?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Learning With: ‘A Star Is Made: 12 Performers Show What It Takes to Light Up the Stage in New York City’

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Learning With: ‘A Star Is Made: 12 Performers Show What It Takes to Light Up the Stage in New York City’

Note to teachers: This is our last Article of the Day for the 2018-19 school year. Also, the video featuring Princess Nokia includes some curse words. Please be sure to preview it before showing it to students to make sure it is appropriate for your class.

Before reading the article:

Nearly 40 years ago, Frank Sinatra sang, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere / It’s up to you, New York, New York.” And more recently Alicia Keys sang, “Concrete jungle where dreams are made of / There’s nothing you can’t do / Now you’re in New York.”

Have you ever had dreams of making it big as a performer?

In today’s article, The New York Times Magazine celebrates 12 performers — ages 13 to 72, including a gospel singer and a sword swallower — trying to make it in New York City.

First, scroll through the article and watch each video clip showcasing the 12 performers.

What do you notice about the performers profiled in the article? What do you imagine are the pleasures and rewards for their types of performances? What do you imagine are the challenges?

Now, choose ONE of the 12 profiles in “A Star Is Made: 12 Performers Show What It Takes to Light Up the Stage in New York City.” Read the article, watch the accompanying video and answer the following questions:

1. Why did you select the article and performer you did? What did you find interesting about the person or type of performance?

2. Why did your performer choose that specific type of performance? What first drew her or him to it?

3. What are the benefits (financial, emotional, creative) for this kind of performance? What are the challenges?

4. How did your chosen performer learn and master the craft? What support — from family, friends, teachers, coaches and mentors — has the performer received while pursuing a creative life?

5. What sacrifices has the performer made for art?

6. What does a life in performance mean to your chosen performer? What has been that performer’s greatest achievement or success?

7. Look at the photos that accompany the text. What story do they tell about the particular craft and what it takes to be successful at it?

Finally, tell us more about what you think:

— What was most memorable, surprising or inspiring about the performers profiled in the article? Does any quote, photo or moment in a video stand out? What questions remain about your performer or his or her chosen craft?

— While some of the performers have had extensive artistic education, many have received little or no formal training and are pursuing nontraditional and emerging fields in performance. What life lessons can we learn from the people featured in the article?

— How do you express yourself creatively? Do your school, peers and family support creative expression and careers in performance? Which type of performance among the 12 featured in the article would you like to explore?

— Do you think artists are born or made? How much of one’s success is based on natural talent? Or can hard work and perseverance lead you to become a great performer? What do you think it takes to make it big?

— Would you consider a life or career in performance? Why or why not? Are you more likely to follow your own creative dreams after reading the article? Do you think you will ever have what it takes to make it on a big stage in New York City?

The Winners of Our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest: Teenagers Tell Us What Matters Most to Them

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The Winners of Our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest: Teenagers Tell Us What Matters Most to Them

“Escaping the Corset in the World’s Beauty Capital” by Jiwon Na

“A Case for Boredom” by Matthew Ngaw

“Returning to Its Roots: Why the Republican Party Must Embrace Conservation” by Colby Porter

“American Colleges Need Greater Diversity … of Thought” by William Rosenberger

“Untraining Our Bias” by Beau Seate

“Journalists: Their Death Is Our Death” by Isabella Simon

“Informed Skepticism” by Niels Vanderloo

“Food Waste for Thought” by Brooke Wager

“The World Is Changing but English Class Is Not” by Isabella Zeff

“Hundreds of ‘Friends’ Yet We’re Still Lonely” by Lily Zhang

_________

Plus: 50 more great editorials that made it to round 3. (PDF)

___________

Judges

From the New York Times Opinion section: Binyamin Appelbaum, Tamsyn Burgmann, Jenee Desmond-Harris, Mara Gay, Stéphanie Giry, Lauren Kelley, Alex Kingsbury, Phoebe Lett, Sue Mermelstein, Charlie Warzel, Alicia Wittmeyer

From The Learning Network: Amanda Christy Brown, Shannon Doyne, Jeremy Engle, Caroline Crosson Gilpin, Michael Gonchar, Annissa Hambouz, Natalie Proulx, Katherine Schulten

Educator-judges from schools and organizations around the country: Erica Ayisi, Adee Braun, Judith Christ, Catherine Conley, Tracy Evans, Nico Gendron, Nadia Murray Goodman, Thomas Houston, Jeremy Hyler, Shira Katz, Willow Lawson, Jeanna McGonegal-Doung, Keith Meatto, James Menter, Sharon Murchie, Edward Osterman, Rene Panozzo, Anna Pendleton, Elliott Rebhun, Jennifer Rittner, Melissa Slater, Brett Vogelsinger, Stephanie Yemm

_________

Students: We hope you’ll also join us for our 10th Annual Summer Reading Contest, any week or every week from June 14 to Aug. 23.

How can healthcare professionals improve the lives of women with PCOS?

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How can healthcare professionals improve the lives of women with PCOS?

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common hormonal condition affecting women in their childbearing years. It increases the risk of diabetes, diabetes in pregnancy, and endometrial cancer. PCOS is a common cause of infertility and it causes symptoms that can be very difficult to deal with, such as acne and hair growth in body areas like the face. Affected women also have a high risk of suffering from depression and anxiety, and weight gain and obesity are common. Between 8-13% of women have PCOS and in indigenous women in Australia, it’s up to 21%.

In addition to the unwanted symptoms, women find it hard to get a clear diagnosis, effective management of their condition, and high-quality information. In fact, too many women are told by doctors that they will be overweight and possibly childless for the rest of their lives, causing extreme distress.

How can this situation be improved? Professor Helena Teede, a treating endocrinologist and Director of Monash Centre for Health Research Implementation (MCHRI), realised the significance and severity of the problem and has resolved to fix it.

Firstly, she talked to women with PCOS and asked them what was important to them (a radical idea, even today). She then invited experts and researchers from around the world, over a three-year period, to assist in the creation of the world-first International Evidence-Based Guideline for the Assessment and Management of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). We have the evidence and now we need to change the practice.

Addressing this need, Monash University has developed an evidence-based and engaging course Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: An Evidence-based Approach, which has been accredited by the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP). Using authentic case studies and the Guideline, the course draws practitioners together from around the world to learn, discuss, and ultimately become change agents in delivering best practice in the assessment and management of PCOS.

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Learning,
Healthcare

#ThrillYourMind

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#ThrillYourMind

It’s late at night. You’re burning the midnight oil. You’ve devoted hours of focus to a programming challenge, project, or problem set.  And just when you’re about to stop for the night, it arrives.

The discovery. The breakthrough. That moment when the lightbulb goes off.

This season, we’re celebrating the learning breakthroughs that #ThrillYourMind. The global community on Coursera is driven to never stop learning, and we want to recognize the joy and excitement that drives that passion.

Over the last 7 years, we’ve heard from learners in every part of the world. We know that you complete courses during your commute to work, your lunch breaks, and late at night after the kids go to sleep. Thank you. We’re grateful for your dedication!

Over the next few weeks, we’ll feature your favorites from our catalog of 3,500+ courses.  We’ll showcase courses that teach the newest cutting-edge skills, as well as some hidden gems that you might not know about.

Into dinosaurs? Greek and Roman mythology? Wine tasting? We’ve got all that, with more to come.

Help us celebrate. Jump onto your favorite social network — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn — and use #ThrillYourMind to share your favorite A-ha moments.

Here are some more ways to celebrate with us:

  • Share about your learning. Love to take notes? Whether you use pen and paper or tools like the new highlights and notes feature, show us what you’re learning! Tag your post with @Coursera and #ThrillYourMind.
  • Share your success! Take a photo with your printed certificate and tag your post with @Coursera and #ThrillYourMind for a chance to be featured.

 

Did I Need to Know What Gender My Nonbinary Interviewees Were Assigned at Birth? Maybe Not.

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Did I Need to Know What Gender My Nonbinary Interviewees Were Assigned at Birth? Maybe Not.

Lisa Reff, a Maryland lawyer who had urged her state representative to sponsor the “Gender X” legislation, said she had struggled with her teenager’s request until another parent told her it was standard for the verb to match the pronoun.

“‘I was saying ‘they is,’” Ms. Reff explained. “Saying ‘they are’ is so much easier.”

Ms. Reff, who said she disliked wearing skirts and dresses as a child, also voiced a confusion I heard from several other women who grew up as 1970s- and 1980s-era feminism was vowing to smash gender-role stereotypes. “My question was, how is this different from being a tomboy?” she said.

One scientist with whom I spoke felt ambivalent about the new convention at professional conferences that attendees write their pronouns on name tags. After decades of fighting for women in the field to be seen as scientists first, she noted, they are now literally being labeled by gender.

But Jamie Grace Alexander, a nonbinary college student who helped to craft testimony on the Maryland bill, told me there was value in having “a name for what I am” rather than trying to expand deeply ingrained conceptions of “male” and “female.’’

“I could subvert their expectations when I come into the room,’’ they said, “but why can’t I subvert their expectations with my identity itself?”

The degree to which expectations of appearance, abilities and behavior are still attached to the binary genders, many informed me, tends to become more evident in light of identities that combine, reject, partially embrace or alternate between them. Parents became aware of how often they are asked the gender of their children as a kind of small talk. Students became aware of how frequently teachers address them as “ladies and gentlemen.” The Facebook group Ah Yes, the Two Genders specializes in documenting gender-reveal party cakes, bathroom signs and other reflections of this penchant for the binary-gender classification.

Dr. Jason Rafferty, the author of the American Association of Pediatrics’ first policy statement on the care of gender-nonconforming children, which was issued last fall, said most of the bullying in middle and high school is based on gender.

Penn’s Dr. Susan Davidson on Women in STEM and New Trajectories Into Computer Science

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Penn’s Dr. Susan Davidson on Women in STEM and New Trajectories Into Computer Science

Over the past decade, computer science has gone from a topic for specialists to an essential tool for professionals in nearly every field. Dr. Susan Davidson of the University of Pennsylvania has been at the forefront of this sea change, including co-founding one of the first research centers for bioinformatics in the country.

In this Q&A, she shares insights from her long career, as well as what it takes to succeed as a woman in STEM (she is a former CIS department chair, former Deputy Dean of SEAS, and faculty founder of the Advancing Women in Engineering Program at Penn). Students from non-computer science backgrounds can learn from world-class faculty like Dr. Davidson in an affordable, online format through Penn’s Online Master of Computer and Information Technology .

Can you tell us a bit about your own journey — what originally sparked your interest in mathematics, bioinformatics, and computer science?

Dr. Davidson: I was the child of academic parents at Cornell University. My father was an applied mathematician, so I was very drawn to math as a child. And my mother was a plant scientist, so I think the intersection of math and biology was inherited from my parents.

I first took a programming course because my sister, who was also a biochemist, said presciently — this was in the mid-1970s — that the future of biochemistry was computational. So I took a programming course with her and realized it was mathematical and rigorous, but that you could actually see output (unlike proving a theorem), and I loved that about it!

What do you consider to be your biggest accomplishments?

Dr. Davidson: I am proudest of the creation of the Center for Bioinformatics [now subsumed by the Penn Institute for Biomedical Informatics] at Penn. This was in the mid-1990s, in collaboration with computer science colleagues Peter Buneman and Val Tannen, statistician Warren Ewens, and two developmental biologists, Chris Overton and David Searles. This was at the very beginning of the Human Genome Project.  While many biomedical researchers were aware that bioinformatics was a direction they needed to go in, Chris Overton understood it better than most and could articulate it — he was very visionary. And I’m very organized, so we made a great pair in co-directing the Center.

The Genomics and Computational Biology graduate degree program came out of the Center as well as the undergraduate degree concentrations in computational biology in both the Arts & Sciences’ Biology department and the Penn Engineering school. So I think I’m proudest of that work because we were way ahead of the curve.

What challenges did you encounter along the way?

Dr. Davidson: I think the biggest challenge was combining family and career. I got married right out of college, so we immediately had a “two body” problem: I went to Princeton for my PhD, my husband was based in Philadelphia, he commuted back and forth from Princeton, and we had *absolutely* no money — which was interesting when gas prices were surging!

And then, as I was graduating from Princeton, we had our first child —  it was very awkward interviewing for faculty positions when I was 7 months pregnant!   I also had no idea whether I could manage a family and a career. Starting a career with a 3-month old, having a second child three years later, and dealing with terminally ill parents (my father died of a brain tumor and my father-in-law developed Alzheimer’s before I came up for tenure) — the combination of family and career was very hard.

I think some things are easier now because most companies have better policies than were in place when I was trying to do it. But I think that no matter what, the whole tension of work and family is always difficult to play out.

How did you succeed at doing both?

Dr. Davidson: My father was not one to give advice, but the one thing he told me was, “Don’t think about it, just do it.” I think that’s actually very good advice, because people spend way too much time wondering if they can do something, and if they just try, very often they succeed! Sometimes they fail, but failure is not the end of the world.

It’s OK to fail. You’ll figure out another way around and succeed eventually. I think the fear of failure, combined with the imposter syndrome that many people have, can be debilitating. Don’t listen to the inner demons telling you you can’t do it!

What advice would you give to yourself today if you were starting out your education?

Dr. Davidson: First of all, “don’t think about it, just do it!” But I think the other thing was that I didn’t understand the value of relationships. I thought that my success in life was based on merit, which is part of it, but who you know and who they know and the connections between people are an important part of your success. I would have liked to understand that better earlier on — it probably would have made my life a little easier.

Many of the applicants for the MCIT are making career shifts — what counsel do you have for someone who is moving into the space without a STEM background?

Dr. Davidson: I haven’t been through this personally, because I grew up in STEM, it was part of my DNA. But I’ve observed a lot of students. I was recently talking to a student in our data science program, and he said that the first three months that he was here, he was absolutely drowning.  He felt that he was never going to make it or understand anything. I think my younger son, who did the MCIT degree, also had a feeling of being completely out of his depth initially.

But they persisted and found a way of stabilizing. So I think a lot of it is not listening to the inner demons, the voices that say you can’t do it or that you’re not good enough. If you were admitted into the program, someone saw something in you. It may take you a while to shift your thought process into more of a computational thought process, but you can do it. Persist, work hard, and eventually things will get easier.

There are also a lot of online resources available:  You can take online courses, and you can find tutorials on particular topics. But no matter what, when you arrive here and you’re surrounded by other smart students, some of whom have been programming for years, you may feel that you’re out of your depth — you just have to persist.

Is there anything you would tell women specifically about pursuing this career trajectory?

Dr. Davidson: It is a great career path, especially for combining family and career — unlike biology, where you have to be in the lab, you can often work remotely.  However, women have to be prepared for the fact that it’s still a very male-dominated field, and it’s going to be a different culture than what they experience here at Penn. I think that tech businesses as a whole are aware that culture is a problem they need to fix, but until then you have to be prepared for potentially being the only woman in the room, for getting spoken over, and for inappropriate comments.

What do you think is unique about the MCIT and MCIT Online experience?

Dr. Davidson: I think MCIT is one-of-a-kind, because we take people who do not know computer science and bring them up to speed. The program is also very hands-on:  It’s really hard to jump into STEM when you come from a field where you’re thinking in completely different ways, so we’ve taken that into account.

And then consider the MCIT program in the context of the university, with connections to other departments, other disciplines, the research you can get involved in, and the connections you can make — because our students are fantastic, they get great jobs and are probably our strongest recruiters!

Unlike our on-campus students, online MCIT students never leave the “campus” because the online community is the campus;  students can graduate and work for years and still be part of that same online community. So I think it will be really interesting to see the dynamics of the social networks and relationships that develop with the Online MCIT program.

Beyond becoming a software engineer at a FANG company, what are some of the other common trajectories you see among Penn Engineering students?

Dr. Davidson: I had a student who was really interested in urban planning and researched what other cities have done with data to analyze traffic patterns and the impact of various things like one-way streets, bike lanes, or stop signs. He really wasn’t so interested in the Google and the Facebook type companies — what he cared about was civic involvement. We have other students that have combined their love of medicine with computation and gone on to do work in hospitals.

It’s very individual. A lot of our students go for the “sure” thing  (the FANG companies) because that widens the opportunities they can get later, but my personal favorites are the ones that follow their passions and apply what they’ve learned to something completely new.

How have the motivations for your students changed in the last 5 or 10 years?

Dr. Davidson: I think people are now interested in starting programs such as MCIT because they understand the impact that technology has on their lives. Think back 5 years — Alexa didn’t have the impact that she has today in our daily lives, because natural language processing hadn’t evolved to a state where we could use voice-activated control as successfully as we do now. Self-driving cars were not really a thing either.

Technology has made huge, huge strides over the past decade, and is affecting absolutely everything you do. And people get it — they know computer science isn’t just sitting in a room looking at code in front of terminal all day. I think that’s the motivator: 20 years ago, you had to convince people that computer science actually had something to do with real life.   

Not everybody’s going to be a computer scientist and that’s fine, but I think that once you’ve gotten out in the real world and found your passion, you realize, “Wow, I need to understand something about computation even if i’m not going to be the programmer, ultimately.”  And that is what motivates our students today.

 

Dog in a Backpack

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Dog in a Backpack

Note: This is our last Picture Prompt of the 2018-19 school year.

What are the weirdest, most interesting or most surprising things you’ve seen on public transportation? Did they shock you, annoy you or bring you joy?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to see more of the oddities New Yorkers regularly encounter on the subway.

Find many more ways to use our Picture Prompt feature in this lesson plan.

Word + Quiz: bon mot

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Word + Quiz: bon mot

: a clever remark

_________

The term bon mot has appeared in 16 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on July 5 in the theater review “‘The Royal Family of Broadway,’ This Time in Song” by Jesse Green:

The opposite problem confounds Julie (Laura Michelle Kelly) and her daughter, Gwen (Hayley Podschun): They want the stability of marriage without giving up the excitement of the stage. When Julie’s old lover, Gil, now a millionaire, returns from Brazil to scoop her up, and Gwen’s stockbroker fiancé, Perry, lays out his dream of a proper suburban life, both women dither over what to do.

To grande dame Fanny (Harriet Harris), their doubts are ignoble. “Marriage isn’t a career,” she harrumphs. “It’s an incident!”

That sort of bon mot — along with huge dollops of bohemian atmosphere — were enough to make the nonmusical “Royal Family” a success …

_________

Are Your Parents Addicted to Their Phones?

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Are Your Parents Addicted to Their Phones?

You’ve been on that device for hours. … Ugh, could you look up every once in a while? Put that phone down, now!

Have these words ever been uttered in your home? If yes, who said them, you or your parents?

In “Your Kids Think You’re Addicted to Your Phone,” Niraj Chokshi writes about a new report from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit children’s advocacy and media ratings organization, about families and the use of mobile devices, based on surveys of 500 pairs of parents and teenagers.

Here are a few of the report’s key findings:

Bleary-eyed moms, dads and teenagers are everywhere.

The findings that Mr. Steyer and the report’s author, Michael Robb, said were most worrying related to how parents and teenagers allow mobile devices to interfere with sleep.

“That’s important because we know that healthy sleep is associated with a range of positive outcomes and poor sleep is related to a range of negative outcomes,” said Mr. Robb, the senior director of research for Common Sense Media.

According to the survey, conducted online and by phone in February and March, 26 percent of parents said they used a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet, within five minutes of going to sleep. The same share acknowledged waking up to check the device at least once during the night, while a slightly smaller share, 23 percent, said they used a device within five minutes of waking up.

The rates were higher among teenagers: 40 percent said they used a device within five minutes of going to sleep; 36 percent admitted to waking up to check a device; and 32 percent said they used a device within five minutes of waking up.

But their worries are different.

Curiously, Common Sense Media found that while parents feel increasingly glued to their phones, attitudes among teenagers moved in the opposite direction.

“It’s interesting and it’s unexpected,” Mr. Robb said.

This year, for example, 52 percent of parents said they spent too much time on mobile devices, nearly twice as many as in 2016. Among teenagers, only 39 percent said they spent too much time on the devices, a steep decline from 61 percent.

The share of parents who felt “addicted” to their devices rose to 45 percent from 27 percent, while the share of teenagers who said the same fell to 39 percent from 50 percent.

Everyone is arguing less. (After all, there are more Facebook and TikTok posts to scroll through.)

One of the strangest findings of the survey, according to Mr. Robb, was that parents and teenagers were more worried about each other’s use, yet arguing about it less.

Today, about four in 10 teenagers believe their parents are addicted to or spend too much time on their mobile devices, the survey found. Among parents, six in 10 worry about their children being addicted to their phones and seven in 10 say their children spend too much time on the devices.

For both groups, though, the share who reported arguing daily over how the other uses mobile devices fell from about a third to about a fifth.

“Both kids and parents are arguing less, but at the same time they are feeling that the other is more distracted,” Mr. Robb said. “It’s a really weird finding.”

The article concludes:

There is some hope, though: About two-thirds of parents said they had family rules governing the use of mobile devices, according to the survey findings.

“We’ve been saying for years at Common Sense that you need to have ‘sacred spaces,’” Mr. Steyer said. “There are times and places where phones, in particular, but all digital platforms should not be there. The bedroom is the obvious one.”

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

— Are your parents addicted to their phones? If yes, how concerned are you about phone use and abuse in your family?

— How much time do your parents spend on mobile devices? How does that compare with your own personal use? How does your parents’ phone use affect your family’s relationships and overall quality of life? What do you think you and your parents could be doing if they put down the phone more often?

— How often do you and your parents argue over the use of mobile devices? Whose use is in question during these arguments — yours or theirs? What is the outcome of these arguments?

— Which finding in the Common Sense Media report did you find most interesting, surprising or provocative? How does your family’s attitudes toward phone use compare with those in the report?

— Does your family have rules about the use of mobile devices? What are they? Do they apply to your parents? What new rules would you like to see adopted in your family to guide how your parents use their phones? How likely are your parents to follow them?

Further Resources:

Is Your Phone Love Hurting Your Relationships?

Could You Go a Year Without a Smartphone?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

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