"Be You" Offers Plenty of Insight

With all of the recent attention on bullying, never has it been more important to start at square one with students and have the conversations about the things that really matter. I'll call them the "other three r's": reality, respect, and relationships. With that in mind, the Qualters Middle School Parent Advisory Council (PAC) has been planning for the past year to provide programming for both students and parents to start this dialogue.

With that goal, the PAC sponsored nationally-renowned author and parenting expert Rachel Simmons to present to girls and parents. Ms. Simmons, the author of NY Times bestsellers Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls and The Curse of the Good Girl, is an educator and coach that strives to help girls and young women grow into authentic, emotionally intelligent and assertive adults. She delivered a workshop entitled "Be You" to over 500 MHS, QMS, and JJ parents and daughters on Thursday night and then to all girls in grades 6-9 on Friday morning. In all three workshops Rachel shared honest and open information on topics such ranging from friendship breakups to social media use/overuse. The feedback from participants has been outstanding!

Rachel is an engaging and dynamic speaker as she aims to relate to girls on their level, frequently citing examples from her childhood in exploring the dynamics of BFFs, or close girl-girl friendships. She used humor in describing how girls frequently "erase" hurtful comments/actions against one another and then ugliness manifests itself through later passive-aggressive actions. The key, according to Rachel, is practicing the expression of emotions through thoughtful, deliberate language. This is the essence of being a confident, assertive person. Moms and dads must also be cognizant that they are modeling these types of behaviors for their daughters at all times.

A tool she shared with girls- and one that could be applicable to anyone, for that matter- for conflict resolution with friends can be summed up with the simple acronym "GIRL": G-ather your choices, I-choose which one, R-easons are for my choice, L-et's think about the outcome. This process allows young girls to think about how their decisions will pan out and serves to make the right choice clearer.

Many thanks to the QMS PAC for all of their hard work in planning and organizing this timely and relevant event! Also thanks to Rep. Jay Barrow's Together We Can Foundation for co-sponsoring the event, and Glee Gifts and the Mansfield Savings Bank for their support. Great work!