Conversation Leaders

Dr. Karen Lachman
Principal,
Uplands Elementary School, Lake Oswego

Patty Metropulos Director,
Public Funding &
Government Relations
Metropolitan Family Service

Conversation leaders prepared the following reading materials:


  Poverty Goes Straight to the Brain

  Determining Economic Mobility

  The 40 Developmental Assets 

  Developing your Child's Habits of Success in School, Life, and Work

Guests considered the following questions:

1. In his article, “Developing Your Child’s Habits of Success in School, Life and Work”, Dr. Costa discusses habits associated with people who are successful in life’s endeavors and problem solving. Please share and discuss the following:
   
   Name a “habit of the mind” characteristic that is a strength for your child. Do you know how this characteristic developed into a strength for your child?
   
   What “habit of the mind” characteristic would you like your child to further develop in the next several years? Using the 40-asset chart, share some strategies that may help your child to develop this characteristic.
   
   
2. In the PEW Charitable Trust article, parental skills are identified as critical to one’s “social capital” which influences the likelihood of upward economic mobility. Where have you learned most of your parenting skills? What resources outside of your own parents/upbringing have influenced you as a parent?
   
   
3. The Pew Charitable Trust article also mentions one’s education level as a crucial component of “human capital”. A college degree is now more important than ever to realizing gains in upward mobility. How were you able to go to college? Besides financial capital, what social and human capital components helped you get there? Did a college degree make a difference your economic mobility compared to that of your family of origin?
   
   
4. Robert Fulghum is quoted as saying: “Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” Anyone willing to share on this one????!
   

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