In this episode, Dr. Shaw continues here mini-series focused on best practices for educating children per what parents want most for their children.  Here she concentrates on the concept of grit and hard work, and she begins with a reminder that parents and educators must model exactly what we want our children to learn.  Dr. Shaw also points out that confusion is important to avoid, and checking for understanding when we communicate with our children is very important.  She interlaces the notion of commitment or follow-through while discussing hard work, and she gives great guidance on how to handle things when faced with a difficult challenge.  

With this episode, Dr. Shaw continues her series within a series.  During this edition, she is addressing the areas of education in which most parents have indicated to her that they are most interested in regard to their child's learning.  This week her focus is on teaching kindness and compassion.  One key to teaching kindness and compassion is by example.  Parents often unconsciously display behavior that runs completely counter to what they want their children to be taught.... the lesson there for parents is to be careful.  For teachers, the key is being intentional.  We are always socializing our children to pay attention to things, so reinforce that their attention should be paid to the positive.  

With this podcast, Dr. Shaw begins a brief series within her series during which she will present key components of what parents are telling her they want out of their children's education.  The areas of interest for most parents of young children do vary, but Dr. Shaw has distilled the most common goals and topics into a handful of categories, and what she focuses on in this podcast is teaching children honesty and integrity.  Parents want their children to be aware of their humanity, and she explains how in her classrooms the stage was always set for children to learn how to be honest and how deceit is a double-edged sword.  One must note and mark moments when honesty is exhibited, must continue to model honesty and must reinforce in both the home and the learning environment that we pay attention to only the positive and not reward the negative with our attention.

Happy New Year!   In this episode, Dr. Shaw starts the new year of 2025 off with a conversation about New Year's Resolutions and about making your life experience as productive and successful as it can be.  It's a refreshing look at starting the new year out properly without pie-in-the-sky goals that may lead to disappointment.   She offers solid advice and information on how to set reasonable expectations for yourself, on the power of having confidence, on the importance of self-love and on generally remaining positive.   

In this episode, Dr. Shaw takes a moment to focus on how the human condition and the desire for connection can sometimes be guided simply by the group that we are part of rather than our pure humanity.  It is true that being a member of a group does offer valuable support, but it is too narrow of a definition for ourselves.  Dr. Shaw observes that she never wanted one chapter of her life to be the dominant chapter of her personal story. She illustrates this analysis by relaying a recent experience she had with a new friend, and she noticed that she and this friend shared an experience and perhaps that commonality led the two of them to their connect.  In the end, it almost doesn't matter what creates the connection... the connection itself is the gift.  Humanity should be the source of connection and with that knowledge, we don't need subgroups to define us.

This brief episode is another one inspired by the recent election in the U.S., and it is a personal and non-political commentary.  Dr. Shaw is an educator who believes in "walking your walk" and it would not be honest for her to not share her wishes and hopes for the world going forward, and that's what she does here.  She references the words and theories of other writers, yet at the same time she presents her singular point of view.  Her hope is for everyone to end up winning as a result of the recent political contest 

In this brief episode, Dr. Shaw re-examines the topic of surrender versus seeing things through.   She feels that it is an important attribute of child-rearing that conversations take place and that many of life's tasks and events are prepared for in advance or "front-loaded" as much as possible.  One of the conversations that is important to have is when it comes to commitments that are made by children.  It could be commitment to a sports team or other after school activity, it could be a commitment to a hobby... whatever it is there are learning lessons inherent in knowing when it is time to persevere or when it might be time to change course.  There are consequences to not setting the stage properly up front and also to making the wrong choice at decision-making time.

In this brief episode, which follows two very personal episodes, Dr. Shaw returns to her specialty as a parenting expert.  Here she discussed the simple scenario of having a child acting out because something didn't go their way.  What actually happened isn't as important as Dr. Shaw's tenet that it's okay to veer away from your usual parenting rules and boundaries AS LONG AS bad behavior is not seen as being rewarded.  Also, if bad behavior is temporarily not addressed for whatever social or environmental reasons, it must be addressed and reviewed at a later time.  Your child must know what they did incorrectly, why it was not appropriate behavior, and what the normal natural consequence for such behavior should be.  Children know and appreciate boundaries as well as needing them.

In this episode, Dr. Shaw once again takes the opportunity to share how positivity can be found as the silver lining of difficult situations.   Her home in Florida was affected by a recent hurricane and she discusses the fallout from that challenging event and how resilience remains an important trait.

In this episode, Dr. Shaw presents a personal point of view regarding the feelings that some folks are having following the recent US Presidential election.  As an educator, Dr. Shaw focused on teaching humanity (just like with the title of this podcast), and for someone with her history it could be easy to be frustrated or scared or shocked by the recent political outcomes across the U.S. because teaching humanity involves teaching about kindness, inclusion, tolerance, respect and so much more... and those things seemed to be clearly missing from the winning team in this election cycle.  Her point of view here, however, is positive.  She offers advice on how we should all remain patient and positive because what happened had an element of inevitability.  She encourages everyone to stay strong and positive and keep focused on the best possible outcomes in the future.