Committee for Children Blog

SEL Is Nothing New Down Under

This past June, Committee for Children staff members traveled to Australia to attend the Positive Schools conferences, held in three different states, and to find out how this country is embracing social-emotional learning.Read More


Team Players, Part 1: Forsythia and First Base

Summer is waning, school is on the near horizon, and my thoughts turn to my ten-year-old son’s very different but equally effective summertime coaches, Coach T (baseball) and Mr. Switzer (swimming). To illustrate their differences, here are excerpts from each of their pre-training mailings:Read More


Team Players, Part 2: Tough Love and Treading Water

Summer is waning, school is on the near horizon, and my thoughts turn to my ten-year-old son’s very different but equally effective summertime coaches, Coach T (baseball) and Mr. Switzer (swimming).  In the previous installment,  we met Coach T, a baseball coach who waxes poetic while teaching kids how to be highly skilled baseball players…and excellent human beings.Read More


Helping Bystanders Stand Up to Bullying

Bullying is complex in that it involves more than just the student who is bullying and the student who is being bullied. It frequently involves bystanders, who can contribute to the bullying situation and make it worse.Read More


Book Review: Will I Have a Friend?

by Miriam Cohen. Illustrated by Ronald Himler.
Reading Level: Preschool to Grade 1

Hovering on the outskirts of all the play, Jim spends his first day of school wondering if he will have a friend. All the other children already seem to have made connections with each other, but Jim doesn’t know how…Read More


Chicago: A First Day of School Like No Other

By Allison Wedell Schumacher

Making the transition to a new school is never easy. But imagine the challenge of making that transition because your school was actually shut down. Imagine the questions flooding your mind: How will I get to my new school? Will the kids there like me and be nice to me? Will I fit in?

Thousands of children and their families in Chicago have been asking these questions and more in the wake of Chicago Public…

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Assertiveness

The fourth-editionSecond Step curriculum teaches four main Skills for Learning that are important for children's success in school: listening, focusing attention, using self-talk, and being assertive. Assertiveness includes many actions, but in Second Step, it involves teaching students to ask for help in a calm, confident, and positive manner.Read More


Massachusetts Safe and Supportive Schools Act

On May 30, 2013, Committee for Children submitted testimony encouraging the Massachusetts Legislature to support S210/H420, An Act Relative to Safe and Supportive Schools.

The bill:

  • Requires all schools, by 2016, to develop actRead More