Making Caring Common
Raising kids who care about others and the common good.
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Read the latest from Making Caring Common! You’re in the right place for our media coverage, general updates, and press releases. Topics include: Access and Equity, Bias, Bullying, Caring and Empathy, College Admissions, Gender, MCC Update, Misogyny and Sexual Harassment, Moral and Ethical Development, Parenting, Romantic Relationships, School Culture, Trauma, and Youth Advisory Board.

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Read the latest from Making Caring Common!

You’re in the right place for our media coverage, general updates, and press releases. Our work spans a range of topics, all connected by our commitment to forefront caring and concern for the common good at school, at home, and in our communities. You can review what’s new below or use the dropdown to sort by topic.

Join our email list and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, to stay current with Making Caring Common’s news and updates. If you’re a member of the media, please visit our Media Room.

 

 
The Washington Post: Feel like the college application process is out of control? Here’s how to keep it ethical.

“The test isn’t to see if you can get your kid into a high-status college. It’s a test of ethical character — and a lot of parents are failing that test.” Making Caring Common’s Rick Weissbourd spoke with Jennifer Breheny Wallace about our new report on putting ethics and meaningful engagement at the center of the college admissions process. Read the full piece in The Washington Post.

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Press Release: New Report Calls on Parents and High Schools to Put Ethical Character at the Center of College Admissions

New Report Calls on Parents and High Schools to Put Ethical Character at the Center of College Admissions

“Turning the Tide II” explores the critical role of parents and high schools in supporting teens’ ethical development and dialing down achievement pressure. The report, published by the Making Caring Common project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, makes the case that an intense focus on academic achievement has squeezed out serious attention to ethical character in many high schools and families, especially in middle- and upper-income communities. With a narrow focus on high achievement and admission to selective colleges, parents in these communities often fail to help their teens develop the critical cognitive, social, and ethical capacities that are at the heart of both doing good and doing well in college and beyond. Many parents also fail to be ethical role models to their children by allowing a range of transgressions—from exaggerating achievements to outright cheating—in the admissions process.

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The New York Times: The Moral Wages of the College Admissions Mania

“Parents are trying to give their kids ‘everything’ but they’re not giving them what counts.” Making Caring Common’s Rick Weissbourd spoke with Frank Bruni about our new report on putting ethics and meaningful engagement at the center of the college admissions process. Read the full piece in The New York Times.

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Quartz: One power-broker parent exposes the bitter truth that the elite play by their own rules

Jenny Anderson spoke with Making Caring Common’s Rick Weissbourd about equity and the college admissions scandal: “The deck is so stacked against low-income kids and working class and middle class kids, and it’s getting more stacked. [Some wealthy] parents don’t seem to have any consciousness about equity.” Read the full piece in Quartz.

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The Washington Post: Kids deserve privacy. As parents, we need to give it to them — online and IRL.

In this piece for On Parenting in The Washington Posts, Sarah Szczypinski speaks with Making Caring Common’s Rick Weissbourd about parenting, privacy, and children: “Parents can’t be impulsive about [sharing information]. They really need to be mindful of what they share and why. I think there are a lot of traps, and it can be at risk of confusing our needs with our kids’ needs. It’s important to be clearheaded: ‘Is this really what my kid needs, or is this about me? And if it is about me, are there any risks for my child?’”

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In the News: Most public schools teach everything but morals. Is it time for this to change? (Deseret News)

Rick Weissbourd spoke with Jennifer Graham about the moral education of children: "What's going on in the big picture here is that schools are spending less time on ethical character, fewer people are involved in religious institutions, and parents are spending less time on ethical character. Too often, parents blame the school, the school blames the parents, and the schools and parents blame the lack of community institutions. We even have data that shows some parents think other parents are the problem. So the case we're trying to make is, everybody has to do more and do better and be more thoughtful about this. You can't wait for other people to do this.” Read more in Deseret News.

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In the News: Sex ed in Alberta is not just an LGBTQ issue

In this piece in The Conversation, Jordan Long cites Making Caring Common’s research on when (and if) parents talk to their kids about sex and relationships: “Although parents can play a powerful role in a child’s sexual socialization, a Harvard Graduate School of Education report found that roughly 50 per cent of parents express uneasiness when attempting to discuss sex with their children. More than 40 per cent of parents don’t discuss sex with their children until after they are sexually active.”

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