We were excited to welcome New York Times bestselling author Jessica Lahey to campus as our guest speaker for the Maria DeHaas Learner Series on October 20, 2021, at 7:00 p.m. in the Cindric Performing Arts Center at Cannon School.    

Jessica Lahey is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed  and The Addiction Inoculation: Raising Healthy Kids in a Culture of Dependence. 

Over twenty years, Jess has taught every grade from sixth to twelfth in both public and private schools, and spent five years teaching in a drug and alcohol rehab for adolescents in Vermont. She currently serves as a recovery and prevention coach at Sana at Stowe, an evidence-based detox and rehab in Stowe, Vermont. 

 She writes about education, parenting, and child welfare for The Washington Post, New York Times, and The Atlantic, is a book critic for Air Mail, and wrote the educational curriculum for Amazon Kids’ award-winning The Stinky and Dirty Show. She co-hosts the #AmWriting podcast with bestselling authors K.J. Dell’Antonia and Sarina Bowen from her house in Vermont, where she lives with her husband, two sons, and a lot of dogs. 

In October 2019, Rosetta Lee presented Parenting with Identity in Mind. Since 2004, Rosetta has been a diversity speaker and trainer on a variety of topics, including cross cultural communication, identity development, implicit and unconscious bias, gender and sexuality diversity, facilitation skills, and bullying in schools. 

These conversations were the first in a series about the value of belonging and forming healthy self-identities in a multifaceted community of student and adult learners.   

William Stixrud, Ph.D., and Ned Johnson - authors of The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives - offered three age-appropriate talks for parents of children in grades JrK-4, 5-8, and 9-12 on October 11, 2018.

Stixrud is a nationally known clinical neuropsychologist who helps kids gripped by anxiety.
Johnson is a motivational coach who runs a premier tutoring service. Several years ago, they each began noticing that high-performing kids were coming to them acutely anxious and lacking real motivation.

Together they discovered that the single most important thing for children to thrive is to feel that they are in charge of their lives. But this doesn’t mean giving up your authority as a parent. The Self-Driven Child offers cutting-edge brain science, the latest discoveries in behavioral therapy, and case studies from the thousands of young people Stixrud and Johnson have helped to teach you how to equip your child in facing challenges with resolve.

Rick Wormeli - husband, father, writer, teacher, coach of teachers/principals, and humorous and engaging speaker - spoke on the evening of October 24, 2017.

The evening's keynote address was “Sure Footing in a Shaky World: Best Practices in Today’s Classrooms that Stand the Test of Time” during which the advanced-age version of Rick Wormeli in the year 2075 A.D. travels through a time vortex back to the current year. As his older and younger selves, Rick reminisces on the teaching and learning practices of today that will stand the test of time through to his contemporary world in 2075. With wigged out hair and an ever young and creative mind, Rick rifts on educational salience.

As part of this evening, attendees had the opportunity to participate in breakout sessions facilitated by Cannon School leaders to engage in conversations about mission-aligned issues around giving learners feedback for learning, our deeper look at curriculum, and broad conversations around student growth.

Cannon School welcomed Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of the New York Times bestseller How to Raise an Adult in February of 2017.

Julie is an acclaimed speaker focused on helping humans find their true north. At its core, her work is about the obstacles we face as humans striving to thrive and how we can unlock our most authentic selves. She’s spoken at schools, companies, conferences, and more across the country, and her 2016 TED Talk “How to Raise Successful Kids—Without Overparenting” has been viewed close to 5 million times.  A mother of two teenagers, she has spoken and written widely on the phenomenon of helicopter parenting.

The Maria DeHaas Learner Series welcomed Rosalind Wiseman, internationally recognized parenting and bullying expert and bestselling author to Cannon's campus in October 2015. Ms. Wiseman is most notably the author of Queen Bees and Wannabes, the book which became the basis for the movie Mean Girls. The long-awaited follow-up, Masterminds & Wingmen, was published in 2013.
 

Each year, Ms. Wiseman works with tens of thousands of students, educators, parents, counselors, coaches, and administrators to address the challenges that face young adults. A frequent guest on The Today Show and Anderson Cooper 360, Ms. Wiseman has also been profiled in The New York Times, People, USA Today, CNN, and on NPR affiliates.

Dr. Ken Bain, noted author of What the Best College Teachers Do, and What the Best College Students Do, spoke to the Cannon School community on the topic of encouraging young people to learn for understanding in November 2013.Ken Bain spent much of his academic career at Vanderbilt, Northwestern and NYU before becoming provost and vice president for academic affairs, and professor of history and urban education, at the University of the District of Columbia, positions he held until 2013.

Bain is founding director of four major teaching and learning centers: the Center for Teaching Excellence at NYU, the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence at Northwestern, the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt, and the Research Academy for University Learning at Montclair.

In the 1970s and early ’80s, he was professor of history at the University of Texas, director of their honors program, and founding director of the History Teaching Center, a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. From 1984 to 1986, he served as director of the National History Teaching Center

There is no harder job than being a parent.  As the pace of life intensifies and the future grows more unpredictable, parents find it harder to raise children of character, good judgment and resiliency.  Robert Evans, noted author and psychologist, will offered advice to parents about how they can help their children develop these key life skills in November of 2012.

In his book, Family Matters, Evans outlines a school-family collaboration that supports and guides children through an emphasis on core values and personal responsibility.

“Family Matters, remains one of the best books on parenting that I have read,” said Head of School Matt Gossage.  “Rob will draw from this book as he speaks to us on the topic of parenting through uncertainty.”

Robert Evans, Ed.D., is a clinical and organizational psychologist and director of the Human Relations Service in Wellesley, Massachusetts.  The former high school and preschool teacher has served as a consultant to more than 1,600 schools throughout the United States and around the world offering training and long-term support for teachers, administrators and parents.  His presentations are known for their lively wit and plain talk.  He is the author of many articles and three books, including Family Matters: How Schools Can Cope with The Crisis in Childrearing.