The world our kids live in

John Halligan gave me a lot to think about last night; both as a father and your Superintendent. After telling the story of his son’s suicide as a result of being bullied – much of the rest of the presentation focused on parenting. He paid particular attention on the challenges of parenting in an age of technology. What particularly resonated with me was his description of the generational differences between how our parents raised us and how we raise our kids. I walked away thinking- as much as we want to raise our children like we were raised we can’t. We can impart the same values and beliefs but we can’t use the same methods- especially when our kids are having issues with their peers. The ability for children to use and abuse social media is nothing like what we experienced growing up. The ease in which someone can take a picture or video and post it to the web is incredible. More importantly- children to not understand the ramifications of those actions. As parents we need to be vigilant in monitoring and discussing with our kids how to use social media appropriately. As a school district immersed in technology we have no choice but to bring this discussion to the forefront. The Middle School staff is vigilant in monitoring the use of ipads, edmodo and student use of the internet. We work hard to teach children the proper use of social media and technology tools but as in everything we need parental support. I urge you to visit http://www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org/ the resource tab is excellent as well as some technology monitoring products under the cyber bullying tab. The best takeaway I had for the night is the simple notion of being an upstander rather than a bystander. If we can encourage our children to stand up when they know something is wrong it will go a long way in combating the negatives that bullying and technology can bring.