Speaking to the Issues

Originally published in the Lake Tahoe School – Bobcat Newsletter

Three years ago, we created the Lake Tahoe School Speaker Series to provide opportunities for parents, faculty, and students to hear in person from authors and educators worldwide on current topics common to PreK3 to Grade Eight education. Now known as The Doyle Family Speaker Series, we have also intended from its inception for the series to be open to the larger Tahoe Basin community – both to help share these visits with those interested outside our immediate school community and to further position Lake Tahoe School as a recognized center for educational excellence in our region.

With speakers and topics ranging from sleep to self-esteem, pre-teen and teen issues, bullying and anxiety to social media, our offerings three times per year have attempted to address all related matters to raising a child and being one. To this end, during their visit, each speaker addresses parents, appropriately aged students, and the faculty separately while on campus. Our speakers engage all three groups thoroughly with their talks and a usually lively question and answer period.

In that vein, we are excited to share our final speaker of the year and her relevance to current issues regarding children and their exposure to and use of social media. Devorah Heitner, PhD, author of Screenwise and Growing Up in Public, will be our guest on Tuesday, April 15. Dr. Heitner will discuss the critical topic of children and their digital world with special emphasis on digital citizenship, bullying in digital spaces, and our children’s use of screen time.

Dr. Heitner’s schedule for Tuesday, April 15, is as follows:

9:00 am- 10:15 am – All parents and guests in the Bobcat Treehouse

10:30 am – 11:30 am – 3rd-5th grades 

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm – Middle School students

3:15 pm- 4:00 pm – Faculty and staff

While it seems these days that all issues are critical with children, it is essential that we, as parents, better understand what those issues are and how we might deal with them. With social media engulfing all of us at any age, nothing is more important than helping our children understand and navigate their role and how they and we might best protect them from its excesses. Please join us this coming Tuesday and bring a guest as well. Hope to see you there.

Welcome back to another great week ahead!

Bob