MTS PARENT EDUCATION SPEAKER SERIES PRESENTS ANDREW DAVIS

That Sounds Hard: A Middle School Survival Guide for Parents

Monday, November 13
7:00 - 8:30 PM
Summit Hall, Mount Tamalpais School campus
RSVP using form below

This talk is open to MTS parents and the greater community.
The event is for adults only- childcare will not be provided.  

Michael Lewis, acclaimed author of Moneyball, The Blindside, and The Big Short, once wrote about middle school, “From the safe distance of 43, '12' looks less an age than a disease, and for the most part, I’ve been able to forget all about it–not the events and the people, but the feelings that gave them meaning.” For parents of middle school students, memories of this disease, long-dormant, often return. Watching our children progress from 5th to 9th grades, however, does not have to be a traumatic experience. If we know what to expect and have some guidelines for how to react as adults – rather than as early adolescents – the middle school years can be a time of joy as children define themselves and prepare to launch into high school and adulthood.  

Knowing what to expect and some guidelines for how to act – a middle school survival guide for parents – is just what Andrew Davis will provide during this talk. Andrew, Head of School at Mount Tamalpais School, has been working with early adolescents since he was 16 years old. From teaching literature to 8th grade boys to the bowline knot to 5th grader girls, Andrew has a wide range of experience with the middle school student. During his six years as Head of Middle School at Crystal Springs Uplands School, Andrew wrote a weekly blog on the nuances and joys of middle school. His talk, drawing from those writings, will help put these often turbulent years in a meaningful context. Though Andrew has worked largely in independent schools, his remarks will resonate with all parents of ten to fifteen year olds.