ROCKPORT — The Five Town CSD (Camden Hills Regional High School) invites the community to join in its Winter Community Book Read, Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence, by Laurence Steinberg, Ph.D.

Age of Opportunity explores the landscape of the adolescent brain, which offers a unique window of opportunity for learning and growing. The book will help any person who has teens or who works with teens better understand what drives their behavior.  Students, parents, teachers and anyone with an interest in learning more about the adolescent brain are encouraged to participate.

The book read will culminate in a group discussion on March 8, from 6:30-8 p.m. in the Camden Hills Regional High School Wave Cafe.  The community is invited to either actively participate in the conversation or simply attend and listen if preferred. 

Copies of Age of Opportunity are available to borrow at Camden Hills Regional High School, and at public libraries in the five town communities of Appleton, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport.  For more information and links to order Age of Opportunity see: http://www.laurencesteinberg.com/books/age-of-opportunity. 

This link provides a related article for those who can’t read the book: https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/12/21/harnessing-the-incredible-learning-potential-of-the-adolescent-brain/.

Questions for the March 8 discussion include:

1.     How are we doing as a community in helping adolescents develop healthy self-regulation?

2.     What strategies do you use to help calibrate your adolescent's experience, given that we know adolescents have stronger emotions than adults?

3.     Is there anything we (parents, educators) could do differently to capitalize on the plasticity of the adolescent brain?

4.     Is there a way to support independence in our children while acknowledging that adolescence lasts much longer than it used to? Where is the preferred balance as a culture?

5.     Choose one of these insights from adolescent science and discuss how you could be more effective as a parent:

·      "It is easier to change an adolescent's behavior by motivating him with the promise of a reward than by threatening him with a potential punishment." 

·      "It suggests that we should spend less time trying to change teenagers and more time trying to change the settings in which they spend time."

6.     What was your most important take away from this book?