From the Desk of the Head of School- August 30, 2019

8/27/2019

Dear Parents,

As parents we are constantly working to do our very best for our children. We strive to build character and resilience, to show our children a world beyond their own. Being a parent is not easy and there is no rulebook to follow along the way. Sometimes we are going to knock it out of the park and sometimes we are going to struggle to find the right path. At Harding, we want to provide as many resources as possible for our families as we partner together to develop thoughtful, creative, lifelong learners and self-disciplined, responsible, caring citizens.

With the expansion of our counseling department, Amy Gartenberg and Rebecca Iglehart have worked tirelessly to provide such resources through the Insight Series. A tremendous success last year, we are excited to continue this platform again this year. As a parent education program at Harding, the Insight Series operates around four guiding principles:

Our approach to parent education comes from a position of empathy; in understanding that today’s world is increasingly fast-paced and complex.
We will strive to model what we know as educators about how people learn via the resources, communications, digital presence, and events we offer as part of the Insight Series.
We will work to underpin events in The Insight Series with the opportunity for our parents to connect socially, thus deepening the bonds that support our children’s growth.
We want the content of the Insight Series to be informed by parents and educators alike.

Our upcoming Insight Series guest speakers include:

Licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Katie Herrington, Ph.D., HSP, on Friday, September 13.

Dr. Katie Herrington is a pediatric psychologist at Green Hills Family Psych who provides therapy to children and adolescents with a wide variety of presenting concerns. She remains on faculty at Vanderbilt University teaching cognitive-behavioral therapy to psychiatry fellows, and is the President of the Nashville Area Psychological Association. In her conversation with Harding parents, she’ll be discussing how to talk to your kids about the big three: thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and how to incorporate cognitive-behavioral strategies into your parenting toolbox.

Current Harding parent and best-selling author of I Miss You When I Blink, Mary Laura Philpott on Friday, October 4.

Perfectionism -- and its corresponding anxiety -- is on the rise among children and teens, and author Mary Laura Philpott knows how those type-A kids feel. After all, she grew up thinking she'd cracked the code: get every answer right, and you'll always be happy. Turns out that's not a secret to success so much as a recipe for disaster. In her talk at Harding, she'll read from her new book and discuss how she learned to accept imperfection (sort of) -- and how parenting has helped her loosen up (a little). Laugh, relate, and reconnect with the reason we're all here: to help our children find their way to which they're meant to be.

Author of New York Times bestseller The Gift of Failure, Jessica Lahey, on Thursday, November 14.

Jessica writes about education, parenting, and child welfare for The Atlantic, Vermont Public Radio, The Washington Post and the New York Times and is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed. She is a member of the Amazon Studios Thought Leader Board and wrote the educational curriculum for Amazon Kids’ The Stinky and Dirty Show.

We invite you to lean in to the resources we are able to offer as we all work to provide our students the very best experience in a safe, enriching and nurturing environment during the ten most formative learning years of their lives and the ten most formative parenting years of our lives.

Back