Three years ago, we created the Lake Tahoe School Speaker Series to provide opportunities for parents, faculty, and students to hear in person from authors and educators worldwide on current topics common to PreK3 to Grade Eight education. Now known as The Doyle Family Speaker Series, we have also intended from its inception for the series to be open to the larger Tahoe Basin community – both to help share these visits with those interested outside our immediate school community and to further position Lake Tahoe School as a recognized center for educational excellence in our region.

With speakers and topics ranging from sleep to self-esteem, pre-teen and teen issues, bullying and anxiety to social media, our offerings three times per year have attempted to address all related matters to raising a child and being one. To this end, during their visit, each speaker addresses parents, appropriately aged students, and the faculty separately while on campus. Our speakers engaged all three groups thoroughly with their talks and a usually lively question and answer period.

In that vein, we were excited to welcome our final speaker of the year and her relevance to current issues regarding children and their exposure to and use of social media. Devorah Heitner, PhD, author of Screenwise and Growing Up in Public, was our guest on Tuesday, April 15. Dr. Heitner discussed the critical topic of children and their digital world with special emphasis on digital citizenship, bullying in digital spaces, and our children’s use of screen time.

While it seems these days that all issues are critical with children, it is essential that we, as parents, better understand what those issues are and how we might deal with them. With social media engulfing all of us at any age, nothing is more important than helping our children understand and navigate their role and how they and we might best protect them from its excesses. We hope those who were able to join us this past Tuesday found the session valuable.

To watch the recording of Dr. Heitner’s parent presentation, click here.