An English teacher at the McDonogh Upper School has been let go due to what the school’s headmaster described as “sexual relations with a minor more than a decade ago” – less than a week after the teacher’s wife was arrested on sexual charges involving a teenage boy.
A distinctive film premieres in Boston this Friday, with tales of the painstaking transition from adolescence into teenage-hood – as told by puppets. Its presentation comes courtesy of Baltimore-based Human Being Productions.
Driving will always be a risky activity for teenagers, but Maryland parents may be able to find some solace in a new national ranking that puts the state above all others for teen driving safety.
Could the legalization of same-sex marriage have helped to reduce suicide attempts by U.S. high schoolers? A new study by researchers from Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School suggests so.
Councilwoman Rochelle “Rikki” Spector is recovering in the hospital, but says she is “doing alright” several hours after two teenagers allegedly assaulted her and stole her car in a South Baltimore parking garage this morning.
Towson Town Center
Teenagers in Towson may need a couple more weeks to adjust to their mall’s new youth supervision requirements.
It would be easy to crack jokes about how appropriate it is to call an event that brings together a large group of teenagers “Louder Than a Bomb.” After all, if you’ve ever lived with one teenager (let alone, a swarm of them) you know that sound is a real thing– and yes, it does have power (for better or worse). On the “for better” side of things: Louder than a Bomb Baltimore. This rapidly growing teen poetry festival will take place this year at MICA from April 23-26th.
On my wedding day, my father put an arm around my husband and said something like: “Good luck, son. She’s your responsibility now.” At the time, I thought he was joking. Twenty some years and two kids later, I realize he probably wasn’t.
Today we introduce a new column, “MillenniHell: Raising Teens in Today’s World“, a twice-monthly post on the challenges of parenting teenagers. If you have topics you would like addressed, please let us know at edito[email protected] – The Eds.
My neighbor just had a baby boy. He is tiny and precious, and it seems like he does nothing but flutter his little eyelids and look picture perfect. But I know better. I vividly remember the foggy early days of new motherhood, when my life suddenly narrowed to the constant, repetitive cycle of feeding, changing, burping, washing, and rocking.
Ah, there’s a reason babies are so cute. Feeling that soft baby skin, smelling that sweet breath, and nuzzling their fuzzy heads against my cheek helped me keep a balanced perspective. Even so, there were times when being in charge of those little beings did get overwhelming.
I remember some well-meaning, veteran mothers commenting: Oh, it gets so much easier when they’re older. So, my kids are now older. I have a teenager and an almost-teenager, respectively. And I’ve got news for those ‘veteran’ moms: It’s not necessarily any easier. It’s just a different kind of tough.
Sure, my kids are bigger. In theory, they’re more capable. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they want to do more. Take, for example, this summer. Most mornings, I would slink downstairs to my basement office for a few hours. When I’d wander back upstairs and make myself present—regardless of what time it was—it always appeared as if time had stood still.
No one was dressed. They hadn’t eaten any breakfast; guess who was expected to make it? On the rare occasions they had scooped themselves some cereal, the bowls hadn’t moved from the counter to the kitchen sink; nor had the dog’s bowl been filled. The spine of my son’s summer reading books? Un-cracked. Beds? Unmade.
Want your teenager to get better grades? Hold off on hiring a tutor and, instead, push him to hang out with the “smart kids” at school. Easier said than done, of course, but it’s been proven to work.
Researchers from Binghamton University surveyed 160 juniors from New York’s Maine-Endwell High School by asking them who their friends were. Then the researchers tracked the students’ school performance for an entire academic year.
Over time, students whose friends’ GPAs were higher than their own began to perform better academically. On the flip side, students who started off with higher GPAs than their friends saw their grades drop. Study results were published in a February issue of the academic journal PLOS ONE.
This revelation may come as no surprise to parents or teachers who witness first-hand the incredible influence friends can have over teens’ behavior. Now here’s a related finding that would be truly earth-shattering: Figuring out how to get your kids to pick friends who will exert a positive influence over them.
Got any tips on that front? Tell us in the comment section below.
