Teaching Humanity Remotely with Dr. Mindy Shaw – Podcast Ep. 31

For my latest podcast episode, the 31^st in my series, I decided to share the audio of a recent media appearance that I was fortunate to have scheduled recently.  Reporter Jimmy Alexander from the CW affiliate in Washington, DC, did a really nice piece about the social and emotion state of young schoolchildren now that schools are re-opening and looking ahead to being as “normal” as possible this fall, and thankfully, he made an interview with me the centerpiece of his report.

When I first saw the headline for his television report, I was a little startled because he called the piece “Are You Scared to Send Your Child Back to School?”  But after reviewing his report, his approach makes a lot of sense on a couple of levels.  Firstly, my work IS all about social and emotional well-being after all, and parents and children ARE skittish about re-entering the close quarters and social environment of schools after the year that we just experienced, especially considering that the pandemic isn’t really truly over.  In that regard, between my recent work in the field of social and emotional learning and my 30+ years of teaching Kindergarten/First Grade students, it really was a sensible approach to a news report.   Secondly, the fact that this was a news piece provided further perspective.  Jimmy and his news team at TV channel DCW-50 are in fact reporting on the news, and while I would love to think that my recent series of 21 children’s nonfiction picture books and my recent parenting guide are news in and of themselves, for a news reporter, there has to be “a story,” and the concern about returning to school truly is a real issue for so many families, so bravo to the TV station for recognizing that.

I truly appreciate Jimmy Alexander and the work he is doing.  He’s a smart, sweet, articulate media professional who works hard to present stories that are meaningful to his audience in the Washington DC area (and of course, since I wrote a children’s book about the Biden-Harris election I can also hope that the White House saw this piece on TV!).

The podcast this week is simply the audio from his television piece, and you can watch that report here:

https://www.localdvm.com/dcw50/are-you-scared-to-send-your-child-back-to-school/

And you can see my author’s page and all of my books on Amazon here:

http://www.tinyurl.com/DrShawAuthor