The More You Know

I love coming to New York to appear on the Today Show, even when the topic is depressing and impossible to parse in three minutes. I got a call yesterday afternoon to jump on a bus (and train and car) to appear this morning to talk about the California shootings and warning signs in kids. 

I always have a goal when I appear in an interview, one takeaway piece of information I want to convey in the segment. Today I had two. 

First, the crime rate has been going down steadily since 1993, and homicides are down between 40-60% depending on which age group you are talking about. Thanks to Lenore Skenazy for the FANTASTIC resouces at FreeRangeKids.com on reassuring, reality-check crime statistics. 

According to Pew Research, 

Compared with 1993, the peak of U.S. gun homicides, the firearm homicide rate was 49% lower in 2010, and there were fewer deaths, even though the nation’s population grew. The victimization rate for other violent crimes with a firearm—assaults, robberies and sex crimes—was 75% lower in 2011 than in 1993. Violent non-fatal crime victimization overall (with or without a firearm) also is down markedly (72%) over two decades.  

But here's the thing. Pew also found that due to the media onslaught surrounding isolated and rare examples of gun violence, Americans believe that gun violence is up. 

Despite the attention to gun violence in recent months, most Americans are unaware that gun crime is markedly lower than it was two decades ago. A new Pew Research Center survey (March 14-17) found that 56% of Americans believe the number of crimes involving a gun is higher than it was 20 years ago; only 12% say it is lower and 26% say it stayed the same. (An additional 6% did not know or did not answer.)

So, takeaway point number one. Chill out, turn off the TV, go back to what you were doing, and remember that the crime rate continues to decline in this country.*  

Takeaway point number two: when a teacher notices that something is up with your kid, and gets up her nerve to tell you about it (which is not an easy thing, ask any teacher), LISTEN. Listen with an open mind and know that if she's come to you, she's worried. 

That said, PSA over, and here's today's segment on "Navigating the world of troubled children."

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*However, as a friend points, out, don't relax too much if you have a gun in your home or if your child has access to guns. That's just too damn dangerous. Here are some links from the Children's Defense Fund re: the stats on kids and guns. 

Life is What Happens...

I'm back in New York this week, hanging out with my friend Dr. Jennifer Hartstein, and this time, we're talking about making the conscious decision not to be busy on the Kathie Lee and Hoda show. Thanks to Brigid Schulte for providing the inspiration in the form of her book Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time, and to Jacoba Urist for the piece she wrote for Today.com.

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Strangers on a Train

I'm posting this from a train somewhere in Connecticut on my way home from speaking at a school and doing a segment on the Today Show. The piece was about raising creative, trailblazing kids, and I got to sit next to Blessing of a B Minus author Wendy Mogel. In an amazing coincidence, my talk (about how kids can tap into their intrinsic motivation) was at Noble and Greenough, the morning after Wendy spoke to the parents about letting kids have space to be kids. We got to have dinner together before her talk, and two days later we sat next to each other on the Today Show couch. She's a lovely person, and I'm so happy I had the chance to meet her.

And in a big win for me, I got to say the name Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on live television. Now, if they just would ask me back to talk about Polish poetry, I'd get to say Czeslaw Milosz, the other name I have memorized phonetically.

Here's the clip from the show!

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Girl Power

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I was in New York this week, pairing an appearance on the Today Show with much-needed reunions with a couple of amazing women that I hardly ever get to see. I have been so blessed as I move into this year of writing and pre-publicity for my book, in that the parenting and education community have gone above and beyond to support me. Forget what you've seen in the television depictions of catty and back-stabbing professional women; my experiences have been the polar opposite of that stereotype. Amazing, smart, and talented women have offered their knowledge and connections up to me without expectation of payback, and the latest in this procession of incredible women is Dr. Jennifer Hartstein, who co-guested on the segment above. While we waited in the greenroom, she introduced me around and gave me the low-down on how things work around NBC. We also managed to give someone parenting advice while we waited for our segment to tape (and ogle the male models waiting for their segment...although that may have been just me).

So thank you, parenting education writers, and you all know who you are. There are too many to mention and I'd surely leave someone out. I know, because I started listing you for this post and it just got silly. I really and truly could not be writing this book and doing these appearances without you.

Today, and Another Trip Over the Atlantic

It's been a great first week of summer. The article on boys and education at the Atlantic is doing really well and has been shared on Facebook over 17,000 times. I took Ben to camp last weekend and got to talk about it on Vermont Public Radio, and then I wrote about it for the Atlantic. This piece also marks the debut of my first published title in a major news outlet. "Good-bye, and Go Away, Thank You Very Much." I tend to like titles that don't say much about the piece itself, and my picky editors tend to like titles that actually convey some meaning. Humph. 

I'm in New York City right now because I'm taping a segment for the Today Show tomorrow that will run on Friday, June 28, in the fourth hour. That piece is on preventing summer academic slump and I get to present some samples of great summer reading. I'm going to keep those selections a secret until the show airs, but I really have to thank my Twitter and Facebook friends and followers for offering up their favorite books as suggestions. 

And the best part of this week? I took those book selections with me to the Eugene O'Neill Theatre and sat on the sidewalk for a couple of hours in order to score some standing room only or lottery tickets for The Book of Mormon. Seemed like a great thing to do to celebrate the demise of DOMA. 

Standing room only means just that; you stand at the back of the theater for the entire show. If you want to get those tickets ($27.00 each, you can have up to two per person, there are roughly 22 of these available for every show), you should show up at 3:00. I was there at 3:15 and I was third in line. At five, the wonderfully friendly lottery guy hands out cards and the people who have gathered in the hopes of getting some incredible seats for only $32.00 hold their breath while he pulls cards out of a lottery wheel. There are about 300-400 people gathered for about 25 seats in the front row and in the two front boxes. It's all very dramatic and lottery guy was a hoot. I had reason to hope when he announced the second card and mentioned the person had come all the way from New Hampshire, and yep, it was true. I had scored front row center seats (and a lovely button announcing that I'd won the Book of Mormon lottery).

As I said, it's been a great week.