Psychologists to discuss stress in students

Madeline Levine, author of The Price of Privilege, and Wendy Mogel, author of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, will participate in a discussion at the opening of the fourth annual "Stressed-Out Students" conference at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 11, in Kresge Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Levine and Mogel, both nationally known psychologists and New York Times best-selling writers, will join School of Education lecturer Denise Clark Pope and local high school students to discuss the physical and mental costs of the escalating pressure on teenagers to achieve academically. Levine's book, The Price of Privilege, explores the reasons why teenagers from affluent families experience emotional problems at epidemic rates. Mogel, whose book, The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, reveals strategies for raising self-reliant children, also has written a forthcoming book, The Blessing of a B-, about what parents can learn from teenagers. Pope is the author of Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic and Miseducated Students.

The discussion kicks off a conference May 11-12 titled "SOS - Stressed-Out Students: Helping to Improve Health, School Engagement and Academic Integrity." Stanford University School of Education, the California Endowment and the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health are sponsoring the conference, which is designed to address concerns that adolescents often compromise their mental and physical health, personal values and commitment to learning as they try to contend with the pressure for high achievement in U.S. schools.

On May 12, middle and high school teams composed of students, teachers, school officials and parents from the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, Chicago and Canada will participate in workshops designed for schools to develop site-specific strategies to counter academic stress and increase student health and engagement. This year, 11 new school groups will join 13 returning groups in participating at the conference.

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