Grey Matters, February 11, 2019; Volume 7, Number 23 

Hi Everyone,


Over the past few years I’ve made a few references to cognitive biases, which refers to some common tendencies that many of us have when trying to make sense of information that comes before us.  For example, the gambler’s fallacy which is where someone flips a coin and it lands on “heads” five times in a row, and so she might have the inclination to believe that the law of averages means there is a greater chance that the sixth coin flip will be “tails”.  Here is a 2014 article from Business Insider that summarized 58 other cognitive biases.  The last time I mentioned cognitive biases was to mention my own experiences with what is known as frequency illusion, where “a word, a name or other thing that has recently come to one’s attention seems to appear with improbable frequency shortly afterwards.” Two years ago, everywhere I turned and everything I read, seemed to be strategically placed to remind me that I was going to be turning 40 later that Spring (including at the time, but not limited to, endless stories about Tom Brady, the “ageless wonder” who is the same age as me).  This time around, I’ve recently felt like I am being bombarded wherever I turn with stories, articles, and television previews that are highlighting the social experiences of middle school-aged girls.  What might be the motivation for this maneuvering by the universe?  A couple of possibilities come to mind, including that my daughter is turning 12 this week and she and eight of her girl friends are currently sleeping in our sunroom, recovering from the collective uttering of what can be no fewer than 25 million words last night. In a rare moment of wise parental decision making, Melisa and I agreed that she would be the one to travel downstairs to speak to the girls at 3AM about needing to go to sleep - nuclear conflict with grumpy dad avoided. As Melisa and I travel a bit father into our journey as parents of a middle school girl, and join the rest of you in this adventure, I wanted to pass along links and information about a few of the more thought-provoking articles and resources that entered my orbit last week.  First, here is the cover story of Harvard’s School of Education magazine Ed. entitled, “Girlhood” with the subheading, “After years of social gains and bright futures within reach, why are things still so difficult for middle school girls?”  A lot of food for thought within the piece, including observations by Bo Burhnam, the writer-director of the critically acclaimed film Eighth Grade, which served as an updated exploration of how early adolescence is experienced by kids today.  Something he said that has stuck with me a bit, There’s been a lot of progress made, but the cultural pressures are still insane. And culture is what leads you at that age, I think…..I think our culture forces girls to ask deeper questions of themselves earlier than boys...I feel like our culture asks boys ‘What do you like to do?’ and asks girls ‘Who are you?’ I think there’s an immense interior mental pressure put on girls, so ‘deep’ is kind of their starting point. You can’t not be deep when you’ve been buried. It’s also a very specific time in life, and girls are mentally and emotionally maturing a bit quicker at 13 maybe.”  Following in the footsteps of Burnham’s film, and perhaps with more of a comedic edge in mind, the Washington Post published a review of the new Hulu series Pen15 with the oh-so-catchy title, “Hollywood is finally portraying middle school as the awkward, miserable and important stage it is”.  If any of you have seen portions of the show, let me know if it’s worth checking out.  Finally, a good friend of mine attended a local event last Thursday featuring Rachel Simmons, author of  Enough As She Is: How to Help Girls Move Beyond Impossible Standards of Success to Live Healthy, Happy and Fulfilling Lives, along with Odd Girl Out, and The Curse of the Good Girl.  My friend was effusive in her praise of Rachel Simmons and her message, so I checked out her website and found that she includes a number of pieces and what she calls “GirlTips” on topics ranging from relationships, achievement and failure, and social media.  I found the pieces I read (I checked out a sampling) to be fairly right-sized in length, and written using language and examples that are pretty straightforward and relatable.  [update: I am writing Grey Matters at 7:40am and I just heard some laughter in the other room]


Here are a few updates and reminders for the next few weeks:


February Vacation begins after school this Friday, February 15. Friday is a full-day of school.  If you already know that your child will be absent on that day, please be sure to let our Main Office know so we can manage the attendance process successfully.  You can email Katy Frey at [email protected].  


The Winter Trimester closes on Tuesday, March 5 and report cards will be emailed to families about two weeks after that.  Additionally, 8th grade students and their families will begin to discuss course registration and recommendations with teachers in early/mid-March.  I’ll be sure to provide additional details about that entire process when we return from February Vacation.


Don’t forget that the R.J. Grey Junior High yearbook is offering you the chance to send your love, pride and congratulations to the graduating 8th grade R.J. Grey student in your life.  You can purchase one of two advertisement formats to relay a message that your 8th grade student will cherish forever. Ads must be submitted by Wednesday, March 13. Please click the link for submissions guidelines and instructions. Please contact Marc Lewis ([email protected]) with any questions.  


I’m excited to provide a well-deserved shout out to the twelve members of our RJ Grey Cooking Club, who last Friday evening hosted an Italian Family Dinner event for friends and family in the RJ Grey cafeteria.  The club and its members were recently profiled in a nice story written by the Acton Beacon, which you can read by clicking here.  Created and led by Health teacher Deb Rimpas, and Food Services staff members Jean Tibbets and Kirsten Nelson, the Cooking Club filled a lot of stomachs last Friday and kudos to the following students for their efforts:  Max MacQuilken, Georgie Smith, Josie Hanlon, Lenka Chytil, Kimaya Gazula, Bree McKinley, Liam Buck, Gabby Luciano, Biz Brooks, Asher Ryba, Justin Nyguyen, and Priyanka Chidambaram.





On Friday, we will enter the break by having our annual Blue & Gold Day assembly, which has traditionally served as a celebration of school spirit, and where we gather as a whole school (which only really happens a few times a year).  As usual we’ll be sure to post the best photos of the event on our Twitter feed, and it will make for a great start to the February Break.  An important reminder that there will be no homework assigned for vacation period.  We hope that everyone uses this time as an opportunity to disconnect from school and devote time to other interests.  Safe travels to those who are using the break as a chance to get away.


Have a great week, a great February Break, everyone.


Cheers,

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Posted by ashen On 23 February, 2019 at 7:34 AM  

 
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