DR. MICHELE BORBA, Ed. D. chats with Janeane Bernstein about her new book, Thrivers.
In Thrivers, Dr. Borba offers practical, actionable ways to develop these traits in children from preschool through high school, showing how to teach kids how to cope today so they can thrive tomorrow.
Michele Borba has been a teacher, educational consultant, and parent for 40 years -- and she's never been more worried than she is about this current generation of kids. The high-achieving students she talks with every day are more accomplished, better educated, and more privileged than ever before. They're also more stressed, unhappier, and struggling with anxiety, depression, and burnout at younger and younger ages -- "we're like pretty packages with nothing inside," said one young teen.
Thrivers are different: they flourish in our fast-paced, digital-driven, often uncertain world. Why? In her new book, THRIVERS: The Surprising Reason Why Some Kids Struggle While Others Shine, Dr. Borba combed scientific studies on resilience, spoke to dozens of researchers/experts in the field and interviewed more than 100 young people from all walks of life, and she found something surprising: the difference between those who struggle and those who succeed comes down not to grades or test scores, but to seven character traits that set Thrivers apart (and set them up for happiness and greater accomplishment later in life). These traits--confidence, empathy, self-control, integrity, curiosity, perseverance, and optimism--will allow kids to roll with the punches and succeed in life. And the even better news: these traits can be taught to children at any age...in fact, parents and educations must do so.
In an interview, Michele Borba can discuss:
· The areas that our kids are REALLY falling behind in after a year out of school (Hint: It’s not just academics!)
· Why we must re-set outdated parenting agendas and follow science
· How to raise optimistic kids in a pessimistic world
· Tools to help kids curb anxiety and cope in anxious times
· Six ways to help social-distanced kids learn empathy
· Why we should let kids fail so that they can thrive in an over-parented culture
· The importance of focusing on WHO a kid is – not WHAT you want them to be.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michele Borba, Ed. D., is the author of UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About Me World, and is an internationally renowned educational psychologist and an expert in parenting, bullying, and character development. She is a regular NBC contributor who appears regularly on Today and has been featured as an expert on Dateline, The View, Dr. Phil, NBC Nightly News, Fox & Friends, Dr. Oz, and The Early Show, among many others. She lives in Palm Springs, California, with her husband, and is the mother of three grown sons.
