What you need to know:
- On Oct. 10, the Fremont Union High Schools Foundation hosted and sponsored a webinar featuring Ned Johnson and Bill Stixrud.
- The webinar discussed responsible strategies for parents to employ when it comes to motivating children academically.
- Stixrud and Johnson emphasized the relationship between parents and children, as parents can act like consultants to eventually lead their children to set healthy goals for themselves.
On Oct. 10, the Fremont Union High Schools Foundation hosted and sponsored a webinar, inviting speakers Ned Johnson and Bill Stixrud to cover academic tension and how parents can help alleviate stress in a balanced manner. This was organized in collaboration with Silicon Valley-based organization the Parent Venture. There were a total of over 500 registrations from both FUHSD and Parent Venture.
The FUHSF has been hosting student wellness webinars since 2019. Previously, these webinars have been hosted live, but due to COVID-19, they have since shifted online. An organization independent of FUHSD, the foundation has allocated a budget of $6,000 to sponsor webinars every year. A future wellness webinar can be expected this year.
“The Parent Venture has been a wonderful partner in helping us produce webinars,” FUHSF board member Rita Allen said. “This particular subject was selected because one of the foundation’s goals is to support student wellness.”
Johnson and Stixrud have previously engaged on many fronts on the topic of adolescent stress and parenting. Johnson is the founder of tutoring organization PrepMatters. Stixrud is the founder of the neuropsychologist collective Stixrud Group. Together, they have co-authored two popular books, “What Do You Say?” and “The Self-Driven Child,” on parent-student connections.
“Because Lynbrook is an academically competitive place, lots of kids are under too much pressure,” Johnson said. “We are on a mission to help foster a healthy sense of control for everybody, especially students.”
The webinar, “A Sense Of Control,” offered parents insights on lowering student stress and improving academic success in a balanced manner. Instead of harsher traditional remedies like cellphone bans and direct lectures, Johnson and Stixrud introduced alternative methods for parents to encourage healthy academic and emotional growth.
The webinar began with a presentation delving into topics such as parent openness, communication strategies and maintaining reasonable expectations for their children.
According to Johnson and Stixrud, one of the key parts of maintaining student motivation in a balanced manner is perfecting the conversations between child and parent. They emphasized that prioritizing empathy in conversations leads to a positive feedback loop that reinforces motivation and self-sufficiency.
“Having more open conversation between students and parents can allow students to move forward,” senior Saarang Mallipeddi said. “In some communities, there is a naturally ingrained stigma about discussing mental health in relation to academics. Frequent checkups can help alleviate this stigma.”
To combat this, Johnson and Stixrud first introduced the approach of parents providing open-ended suggestions rather than enforcing concrete rules. They then highlighted the importance of parents to validate their children’s struggles.
“Generally speaking, I think that family relationships are the largest factor in managing stress,” school counselor Shana Howden said. “Students are only at school for eight hours a day — a much shorter time than they spend with family.”
Johnson and Stixrud then mentioned the importance of targeting this model reality, encouraging students and parents to set up realistic goals together.
“Every parent wants their children to be successful,” Johnson said. “Reflecting on this webinar, I hope that we made parents and students feel safer by helping parents exude less control and students find their motivation.”
