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“Rather than telling our kids the most important thing is that they’re happy, we should be telling them the most important thing is that they’re kind.”
Listen to this great interview with MCC Faculty Director Rick Weissbourd in the Shah Family Foundation’s Catalysts for Change podcast.
Does our future include social robots to help combat loneliness?
It may sound like a sci-fi movie, but according to CMS Wire, "conversational AI bots are becoming the norm in Asia, and are beginning to be commonplace even in the United States."
Looking for ways to help anxious students? Making Caring Common Faculty Director Rick Weissbourd suggests:
1. Connect every student to an adult at school
2. Discover what each student is anxious about
3. Focus on building community
Hear more in this short video by Usable Knowledge:
The Voice of Islam Radio’s Drive Time podcast interviewed MCC’s Rick Weissbourd about the role of values and ethics in day-to-day life. Take a listen on SoundCloud!
Read More"I think of loneliness as a social failure, not as an individual failure. And when you see that large numbers of people are lonely, I think it’s a sign that communities aren’t functioning well, that we don’t have a social infrastructure that really functions very well," says Rick Weissbourd.
In this Popular Science piece, Morgan Sweeney writes about pandemic isolation and how we can work to "overcome America's invisible health crisis."
Read MoreDid you know that September is sexual health month?
The Philadelphia Inquirer featured our research in this article discussing how young people are often looking for more information about how to create and sustain healthy romantic relationships.
What are some pros and cons of working from home?
The last 18 months have been tiring and stressful for parents. At the same time, the pandemic also gave many fathers more time at home with their kids.
Dads are reevaluating their work-life balance, writes Joe Pinsker in The Atlantic.
Read MoreTalking to your children about going back to school and hearing their worries is crucial, especially this year.
"What parents are worried about may not be what kids are in fact worried about. It’s important for parents to inquire, find out, and listen to what kids are concerned about,” said Rick Weissbourd in this Harvard Gazette article.
Read MoreCoaches can foster a positive team environment and encourage key life lessons if they are thoughtful and intentional in their approach.
Check out these tips from The Good Men Project!
One silver lining of being home all day every day during COVID-19 lockdowns?
Family dinner time!
Over 50% of families we surveyed ate meals together last year and would like make it a habit. Our friends at The Family Dinner Project provide some helpful tips for parents for how to build the back-to-school dinner habits that work for your family.
Read MoreHow important are college rankings?
"If our numbers-driven, quantify everything, judgment culture has its claws deep into you such that you simply cannot resist the need to surrender to ratings and rankings, then at least do your homework,” writes Brennan Barnard in Forbes.
Read MoreHow can we lay the groundwork for more constructive political dialogue?
"We can begin by listening to each other, and we can try to learn about those we perceive as our opponents. We can lead with grace instead of leading with the quick burn. We can create space for respectful dialogue. And we can take pride in knowing that these small acts can add up to something much greater," write MCC's Ali Cashin and Rick Weissbourd in this piece for The Greater Good Science Center.
Read MoreHow will new fathers weigh the pros and cons of returning to an office?
“In the case of new fathers, the pandemic might have spawned a long-overdue cultural shift in how to balance workplace and family life," writes Conor Sen in the The Washington Post.
Read MoreThis Buffalo News piece references three key aspects of empathy:
Taking someone else’s perspective
Identifying with another’s feelings
Learning to value human beings outside ourselves help us develop “a moral identity.”
Cartoon Network has launched a campaign about how to be a positive gamer. These videos give kids tips on heading off bullying before it starts. Since 2010, Stop Bulling Speak Up has empowered kids to develop greater kindness, caring, and empathy.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Labor's American Time Use Survey confirmed that dads spent more time with their kids in 2020.
"One of the questions is are fathers going to take the first train back to normal here ... or are they going to maintain some of this time and some of this closeness?” Rick Weissbourd asks in this Reuters article about the survey's results.
Find out more about how Americans spent their time last year during the pandemic.
Read MoreUbuntu, a South African word, is "recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us,” said former president Barack Obama.
Ubuntu is a reminder that caring matters, especially caring for those who are different from us.
Read More"Helping people who are lonely or depressed is hard. If we’re going to build the kind of society we want, we’re all going to have to sacrifice,” says Rick Weissbourd in the Chicago Tribune.
Read MoreMaking Caring Common’s Caring Schools Network (CSN) supports K-12 schools in cultivating strong, caring school communities that nurture students’ social, emotional, and academic commitments and skills they need to care for people who are different from them and build caring, just communities.
Join us to learn more about the following:
How we support schools
How schools improve their culture and climate
Ways to become involved
We look forward to seeing you and answering your questions!
Read MoreDid you know that the new U.S. Census Bureau’s report shows that the number of children living in father-absent homes is down to 18.3 million?
Lake Country News cites our fatherhood research in this piece about the new data.
Read More
