TODAY'S PARENT
September
*&#$%! That might be how some of your kids feel about the mid-August appearance of this (or any) Back to School issue.
Parents, however, should find edification in tips for dealing with their offspring's anxiety.
For new kindergarteners, "Talk your child through a typical day of school so she knows what to expect," says teacher Kim Smith. "First we'll walk to school together, then you'll play until the bell rings and then you'll line up and go into your classroom. I'll head home and do some work but I'll be there to pick you up when school is over."
And the other end of the system?
"The main thing high school teachers say they want from kids coming into Grade 9," says Grade 8 teacher Scott McDonald, "is to know how to ask for help."
BUDDHADHARMA
Fall
How do Buddhists regard sex?
"Sexuality in and of itself is not a problem," writes Narayan Liebenson Grady, a teacher at a meditation centre.
"However, when we are seeking pleasure as an end to itself, what has the potential to be beautiful becomes suffering. Attachment to self-interest creates an obstacle, making it difficult to examine our intentions and actions."
When discerning the difference is difficult, Grady points to one overriding, guiding principle: the wisdom of restraint.
The Buddha "recommended pausing before acting, to question an action before taking it, if there is any question about its skillfulness or wholesomeness. We need to step back and ask, will this action cause harm?"
PORTFOLIO
September
More reruns hardly seems like the cleverest TV strategy, but there is one counterintuitive variation that has shown surprising promise.
"A lot of times, we'll premiere an episode of Top Chef," says Andy Cohen, a senior VP at Bravo, "and then rerun the episode right when it's over. And people stay tuned!"
Such a tactic "used to be dismissed as killing the goose that laid the golden eggs," writes Mark Harris, "until people noticed that the goose kept on thriving."
Broadcasters' schedules, however, remain set in stone. Some programming blocks make sense economically but, "Daytime soaps occupy a large swath of airtime that could occasionally be used to repurpose a network's prime-time schedule cheaply and efficiently."
