Parent Education Program

The Parent Education Committee provides resources and events that help our community expand their knowledge about parenting, child development, and ethical literacy in a manner that is grounded in the mission/foundation of Catherine Cook.

The Catherine Cook Parent Education Committee was formed in 2011 and consists of a Steering Committee and parent volunteers. Our mission is to provide learning opportunities centering on parenting, child development, and ethical literacy with an emphasis on diversity/social justice issues. The school counselors, Director of Admission, and all three division heads are members of this committee to ensure that events meet the needs of parents at all levels. Questions regarding Parent Education can be directed to parented@ccookschool.org.

Catherine Cook is a member of the Family Action Network (FAN). FAN connects parents, students, educators, civic leaders, and professionals through collaborative programming that educates, inspires and positively impacts the broader community. Being a member of this network allows Catherine Cook to attend speaker events hosted throughout Chicago and the Northern Suburbs during the school year. Please click here to see a list of upcoming FAN events!

Parent Education Resources

Parenting Approach, Parent-Child Bonding, Child Psychology, Emotional Development And Emotional Intelligence

The 5 Love Languages of Children: The Secret to Loving Children Effectively” by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell
Recommended by Sunni Kitson
About the Book: Learn how to speak the five “love languages” of your child. Fluency in these languages will improve family relations, reduce tension and strengthen bonds.

Building Emotional Intelligence: Practices to Cultivate Inner Resilience in Children,” by Linda Lantieri
Recommended by Dr. Jean Robbins
Quick impression: Practical advice on cultivating mindfulness, calm and focus, and managing difficult emotions. Given the growing levels of social instability and incivility apparent in our public discourse and politics, it is crucial that our kids are in a position to bring clarity, reason and empathy into discussions and interpersonal relations.

Parenting, Group Socialization, Peer Group, Child Psychology

The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do, by Judith Rich Harris
Recommendation by Erik Gudell
About the book: "Parents have no lasting influence on their children’s personalities or on the way they behave outside the home...Different cultures have different myths about the role of parents. ” A child’s peer group is far more critical. This book is noted as influential and iconoclastic. Cited in “The Gift of Failure.” Explores the role of group socialization in shaping the individual.Erik says the book is scholarly, well-researched, accessible and witty. Longer read, provocative, seminal work.

Grit, Growth Mindset, Independence, Over-Parenting

The Gift of Failure (How the Best Parents Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed) , by Jessica Lahey
Recommended by Cory Stutts and Sunni Kitson
Erik Gudell's reading notes: "Over-parenting, or 'helicopter parenting' stifles healthy child development, which must include the experience of failure. Over-parenting often focuses on achievement – e.g., straight A’s, perfect test scores, recognition – but at the cost of an irrational and counter-productive fear of failure. By letting kids “figure it out” on their own – in school, in friendships and social relations, in personal interests, sports, etc. – they gain firsthand experience, skills and knowledge and confidence which makes them better students, kids and ultimately citizens and adults. The author presents her own experiences as a teacher and parent, and offers lots of pointers on how to change the dynamic and outcomes. Pretty quick read."
How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success , by Julie Lythcott-Haims
Recommended by Dr. Jean Robbins
About the Book: This book exposes the problems of helicopter parenting and offers an alternate way to raise preteens and teens as self-sufficient young adults. “Why did parenting change from preparing our kids for life to protecting them from life…?” Well written in a conversational style, offers practical advice. Dr. Robbins says "Lythcott-Haims is well-regarded in the independent school circuit as a featured speaker."
Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting by Carl Honore,
Recommended by Erik Gudell
A note from the author: “We feel we have to push, polish and protect our offspring with superhuman zeal – or else we’re somehow falling down on the job. We start from the noble and natural instinct to do the best for our kids but end up going too far. Social and cultural pressure drives a lot of this. My aim in the book is not to blame or demonise parents. It is to make us all feel less guilty and insecure about our children, and to show how parenting less hard can actually help them to thrive even more.”

Race, Socioeconomics, Ethnography, Inequality

White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America (Critical Perspectives on Youth)” by Margaret Hagerman
Recommended by Cory Stutts
About the book: Through interviews and observations of families in their everyday lives, the author explores questions such as, “How do white kids learn about race when they grow up in families that do not talk openly about race or acknowledge its impact?” and “What about children growing up in families with parents who consider themselves to be ‘anti-racist’?” This book explores the extent to which white families, even those with anti-racist intentions, reproduce and reinforce the forms of inequality they say they reject.

In This Section