Radical Acts of Education

Parents Learn to Listen

The Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility holds workshops that build emotional skills in more than 60 New York City schools.

Photo by Carolina Kroon

The Morningside Center for Social Responsibility believes families hold the key to creating a more peaceful world. Parents teach kids the emotional skills that influence their decisions for the rest of their lives.

That’s why Morningside offers workshops in more than 60 New York City schools to equip parents to understand their children’s emotions. One workshop exercise shows how put-downs can take a toll on a child’s self-esteem. A paper heart is ripped to symbolize a put-down either from a bully or a parent. By the end of a bad day, the heart is in tatters. The workshop is part of a program called Peace in the Family, which teaches parents to use open communication to handle their children’s emotions.

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Parents Who Listen

Citizen Scientists Learn from Flowers

Project Budburst volunteers record the opening of flowers as a way to monitor the effects of climate change.

Photo by Janice Lorentz

People across the country are learning what plants say about global warming.

Project Budburst sends citizen scientists outside to record the dates when local plants open their leaves, flower, bear fruit, and go dormant or die. As the climate warms, the timing of each event changes. “Scientists can’t be everywhere.

We need people to tell us what they see,” says Carol Brewer, a co-founder of the project and biology professor at the University of Montana. Check out budburst.org.

From YES Magazine