The first 8th Grade ParentNet Meeting of this year was enthusiastically attended by twenty-seven families. Doris Yimoyines, Cynthia Hunter, Renee Walter, Liz Theofilos, Kerri Post, Kathy Lowenstein, Claudia Cerutti, Nadine Feldman, Mary Lou Johnson, and Jean Keenan attended as facilitators. Mrs. Judy Caprara attended as faculty liaison. Different rates of maturation and stages of development, self esteem issues, and cultivating a positive outlook were the main topics. The group acknowledged that parents are dealing with issues caused by raging hormones and fluctuating self-esteem.
Teens take criticism badly from anyone and are particularly sensitive to peer group judgments.
However, it was clear that some limitations and consequences for inappropriate behaviors needed to be made clear. The content of teen-initiated emails also was of concern. To deal with this some parents are policing emails by reading them, some are using Net Nanny. Parents were concerned about the lack of trust implicit in these measures and sought to find other ways to address this issue. One suggestion was to discuss the family's moral standards in light of the undesirable materials available as a more positive approach.