Friday August 31, 2001
Talking to Kids About Layoffs
Job loss creates anxiety and economic hardship for families. For advice on how to talk with kids about layoffs, FamilyEducation.com consulted three experts. Here’s what they have to say:
-Carolyn Hoyt, editor at Working Mother magazine: “Telling them proactively what’s happened is probably the best thing to do, because they’re going to see that Mommy’s not getting up and going to the office, or Mommy’s mad at Daddy. What happens when you say nothing’s wrong is that they’ll perceive the truth anyway, and then they won’t trust you at exactly the point they need to.“
-Ellen Galinsky, president and founder of the Families and Work Institute in New York: “If there is something going on but it’s not being talked about, then it’s a whole lot scarier. Bring up how you feel about it — I’m upset, I’m angry — but also say what you’re going to do about it, what your coping strategies are.”
– Robert Waldinger, M.D., child psychiatrist on the staff of Boston’s Judge Baker Children’s Center and Harvard Medical School: “I think the child sees work through the parent’s eyes. When the parent conveys the message, “these things happen, people change jobs, we’ll be okay,” that’s what the child needs to hear. Try to present things realistically: While I’m looking for a new job, we’ll have more time to do things together, but then when I get a job things will go back to the way they used to be.”
Title IX Spending: An Investigation
Three decades ago, President Nixon signed into law Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972. Buttressed by the U.S. Constitution, Supreme Court decisions and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, Title IX prohibits institutions that receive federal tax money from discriminating against students because of their sex, including school-sponsored athletics.
But the fact is, it still happens.
Last fall, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review embarked on an unprecedented examination of gender equity in sports programs at the 129 public high schools comprised by the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League and the Pittsburgh City League – the organizations that oversee high school sports in southwestern Pennsylvania.
The goal was to see how well the schools were living up to Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination in all aspects of education, including sports. At each school, the Trib examined athletic programs’ participation rates; money spent on equipment, training, travel and uniforms; and coaching salaries for the 1999-2000 school year. The Trib gave that information to athletic directors, superintendents, principals, parents, students and educational and legal experts to see how the schools fare when it comes to treating boys and girls fairly on the playing fields.
The newspaper’s investigation showed: “During the 1999-2000 school year:
– Two out of three athletes were boys.
– For every dollar spent on sports, 69 cents goes to boys.
– The average school spent $493 on each male athlete, $350 on each female.”
Move Smooth
More than 800,000 Americans move to accept new jobs each year. How can you make it go smoothly? Here are some nice tips.
National Child Care Survey
The 2000 survey found that only half of all states require training in child development for caregivers, even though research has demonstrated that taking such courses tends to make caregivers more sensitive and responsive to children’s needs.
“The Working Mother survey also found that more than half of the states received a poor or mediocre ranking in terms of their ratio of children to adults. But our research also shows that a handful of innovative states are figuring out new ways to make a real difference in children’s lives.” Check your state here.
