IT'S TIME TO STOP WHINING AND START BELIEVING IN OUR KIDS

FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE

FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF MAY 3, 1998

GREAT ASPIRATIONS! by Two Dads

IT'S TIME TO STOP WHINING AND START BELIEVING IN OUR KIDS

Great Aspirations! by Two Dads is a new weekly column focused on ideas for helping parents inspire their kids. Think of it as a practical workshop for helping you become the kind of parent you promised yourself you would one day be.

Most specifically, it's about tangible ideas for making a difference. It's about hopes, dreams and, most important, IDEAS to help you encourage, inspire and shape your kids into confident, happy, motivated children.

Today more than ever, we believe parents need a source of hope. Everywhere you look folks are whining about the erosion of the American family, the crisis in education and the shortage of old-fashioned common sense. From the president to the halls of Congress, on radio talk shows and in editorial page commentaries, the air is filled with the rhetoric of whining. Enough already!

This column comes from a no-whining-allowed perspective, one that's worked with real kids. In fact, in the last 12 months, school-focused Aspirations programs, led by the National Center for Student Aspirations at the University of Maine, have delivered the following remarkable results among public school students:

-- a 150 percent increase in national proficiency test scores

-- a 50 percent increase in grades

-- a 72 percent drop in discipline problems

-- a 25 percent decline in absenteeism

And that's just the start. Research also confirms that children with high aspirations are far more equipped to resist peer pressure, drugs and alcohol. They also are more excited about learning, have greater ambition and a greater sense of overall happiness.

Great Aspirations! is about taking wisdom and inspiration from the school-focused Aspirations programs and making it available to parents.

Each of the Two Dads brings a distinct perspective to the challenge.

Dr. Russ Quaglia, director of the National Center for Student Aspirations at the University of Maine, is the child aspirations "rocket scientist" of the pair. He developed the eight core Great Aspirations! principles during 15 years of academic research and field work in schools.

Doug Hall, called "America's Top New Product Idea Man" by Inc. magazine, invents new products and services for such companies as Nike, Walt Disney, Mattel, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble. Doug provides the creative spark, using his talents to help turn the Aspirations principles into practical ideas for parents.

Together they provide some humor –- because when we can grin about our foibles and our kids' imperfections, we can work around them with patience and grace.

So how does Great Aspirations! fit into the big picture? We're outnumbered. There are more kids under the age of 8 in the United States today than ever before, with more on the way. In fact, the Department of Education estimates that in less than 10 years, some 6,600 new schools will be needed to handle the boom in children that resulted from the baby boom "echo" generation reaching child-bearing age, as well as a significant number of baby boomers waiting later to have children. With all these added children come lots of parents looking for ideas.

We believe in moms and dads. We believe that moms and dads, stepmoms and stepdads out there want to do the right thing for their kids. The challenge is that in this chaotic world, it's hard to know what to do.

We believe it's time to believe.

As parents, it's time to believe that all of our children have something special and unique within them.

It's time to believe, beyond a doubt, that we influence their futures and mold their lives every time we sit down and spend a moment -- and every time we don't.

It's time to believe that the smallest things we do -- and don't do -- make a difference in the lives of our children, and that these small differences add up to something significant over time.

Most important, it's time to believe wonderful surprises are just waiting to happen. All of our children's hopes and dreams are within their grasp -- all we as parents have to do is reach out and believe in them. Once we really believe, our kids will have the foundation for unlocking their true genius!

(The Two Dads are Doug Hall, Director of Great Aspirations!, and Russ Quaglia, Child Aspirations Expert.)

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