Overcoming challenges in parenting

Head of school Percy Abram, PhD, reflects on the challenges he faced with his own parents as he grew up compared to the parenting challenges faced by his own generation, as he raises his own children. Watch this video for more information on this fascinating topic about changing parenting styles.
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Overcoming challenges in parenting

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I think one of the challenges that I have overcome in my parenting are my parents. My parents came from a different generation where the social norms were much different. I have a father who was born in Mississippi. My mother was born in East Texas. So a lot of the lessons that they learned, a lot of the ways in which their parents related to them, really were about conforming to social norms. And when I hear them talk about conforming to social norms, to me that's an indication that their parents were clearly aware that going outside of those social norms may have meant their demise. So if they decided that they weren't to walk on the side of the street where they were told to walk or they decided that they weren't going to drink from a fountain that they were told not to drink from, it would have consequences far greater than what I could ever hope to realize. So in many ways, they raised me to follow social conventions, to not always question authority for fear that the repercussions that might have fallen upon them would fall upon me. I raised my children very differently. I want them to have a voice. I want them to question authority. I want them to be curious about why things happen in the world around them. I don't necessarily want them to listen to authority for the sake of just because an authority figure says so. I find that they are probably more critical, creative, curious, young children than I was. So that's been a challenge. But I also understand where that challenge comes from.

Head of school Percy Abram, PhD, reflects on the challenges he faced with his own parents as he grew up compared to the parenting challenges faced by his own generation, as he raises his own children. Watch this video for more information on this fascinating topic about changing parenting styles.

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Percy L. Abram, PhD

Head of School

Percy Abram is the Head of Gateway School.  Gateway School is a Kindergarten – 8th grade independent school in Santa Cruz, CA.  Prior to joining Gateway School, Dr. Abram was the Upper Division Director at Brentwood School in Los Angeles.  An LA native, Dr. Abram received his B.A. (Economics) and M.A. (Education) degrees from UCLA, and his M.A. (Sociology) and Ph.D. (Education) from Stanford University.  Dr. Abram and his wife are the parents of a 10-year old daughter and 7-year old son, and despite running a school and being responsible for 260 students each day, he still finds parenting his most challenging job.

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