Strong Families Successful Students
by 
Stephen Michael Gavazzi
Synopsis
This book offers new hope to parents who wonder whether or not what they are doing is “good enough” when it comes to helping their teenage sons and daughters experience success in school. The author, Dr. Stephen Gavazzi, is a renowned researcher and family therapist who spent the last twenty-five years of his career studying how families matter in the lives of teenagers. Dr. Gavazzi takes a radically different approach to this subject, insisting that family members are their own best experts when it comes to raising their teenage sons and daughters. The author provides important information about how families operate at their best, with special attention given to 5 Facts about Strong Families. Building on these 5 facts, this book provides a series of step-by-step exercises designed to get parents and teens to work together to build upon their current strengths and capabilities in order to create new opportunities for teenagers to experience success in school.
Close Up
Genre
Classification
Non-fiction
Pages
146
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Inspiration
First and foremost, I wish to acknowledge the contributions of the hundreds of families with teenagers that I have worked with over the past two decades. Their heartfelt participation in my programs and intervention efforts quite literally made the writing of this book a possibility. Second, it has to be said that I had no better teachers for this content area than my own sons. Their growing up experiences constantly kept me thinking about what it was that I really knew about families with teenagers. Third, I wish to recognize the support of my wife Courtney who, in addition to being my life partner in the raising of our sons, also provided me with excellent advice on how to remain focused on my intended audience throughout the writing process. Fourth and finally, I am grateful for the feedback I received on earlier versions of this book from the following individuals: Christy Farnbauch, Barbara Klein, and Dora Sterling.
Dedication
To the “good enough” person inside of each one of us.
Publisher
BookSurge
Publication Year
2010
ISBN-10
1439262438
ISBN-13
9781439262436
Buy Online At...
amazon.com
Excerpt (posted with permission by author)
The book is divided into two sections: a thinking part and a doing part. The first section is labeled the Science of Families, and involves the thinking part of the book. The chapters in this section are designed to help you understand what we know about families from research literature. In essence, you will be given an overview of the accepted wisdom about parents and teenagers. This first section ends with a chapter that discusses five facts about strong families, which provides an important connecting point to the second section of this book.
The second section is labeled Steps to Becoming a Strength-Based Family, and concerns the action-oriented portion of the book. There are five chapters that are connected to each of the five facts about strong families, and each chapter is built around an exercise that you can do with your family. While these exercises are geared specifically toward helping your teenager experience greater success in school, you may come to realize that the things you learn from the activities can be transferred to other parts of your lives together.
The second section is labeled Steps to Becoming a Strength-Based Family, and concerns the action-oriented portion of the book. There are five chapters that are connected to each of the five facts about strong families, and each chapter is built around an exercise that you can do with your family. While these exercises are geared specifically toward helping your teenager experience greater success in school, you may come to realize that the things you learn from the activities can be transferred to other parts of your lives together.