Good girl, real girl
Dear Parents,
I’m excited to announce that New York Times best-selling author, educator and coach Rachel Simmons will present to parents Get Real: An Interactive Workshop at Elmwood School on Wednesday, April 7 from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Students from Grades 6 to 12 will participate in Simmons’ workshop in the afternoon.
Simmons, through her books, workshops and curriculum, helps girls become young women with integrity, self-awareness and personal authority. In her book, The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence (on which this workshop is based) Simmons argues the “Good Girl” is an unachievable ideal which compromises a girl’s true potential. As prologue the book flap states:
“…in lionizing the Good Girl we are teaching girls to embrace a version of selfhood that sharply curtails their power and potential. Unerringly nice, polite, modest, and selfless, the Good Girl is a paradigm so narrowly defined that it’s unachievable. When girls inevitably fail to live up—experiencing conflicts with peers, making mistakes in the classroom or on the playing field—they are paralyzed by self-criticism, stunting the growth of vital skills and habits.”
Simmons’ book also “offer[s] a map to girls’ crucial inner resume and the strategies you will need to guide your daughter from Good Girl to Real Girl.”
“A Real Girl stays connected to a strong inner core of her thoughts, feelings and desires. She is able not only to listen to who she is but to act on it. She maintains a critical balance: she can manage the needs of others without sacrificing the integrity of her own. Where a Good Girl might meet someone and automatically hope she is likeable, a Real Girl will reflect on what she thinks and feels about the other person before deciding what to do next.”
I’ve heard amazing things about Simmons’ Get Real workshop—it’s educational, interactive and fun; teaches practical strategies to be authentic in relationships and helps girls learn the skills to express their needs, accommodate others and take healthy risks.
This workshop is a great opportunity to interact with one of the leading scholars in the field of girls’ relationships. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to rvsp@elmwood.ca or call (613) 744-7783.
Please download the Rachel Simmons poster (pdf) for more workshop details. It’s open to the public, so feel free to forward this information to your respective networks.
I look forward to seeing many of you there and wish everyone a wonderful March Break.
Cheryl
Rachel Simmons @ Elmwood School
Get Real: An Interactive Workshop
Wednesday, April 7
7 – 9 p.m.
Please RSVP to rvsp@elmwood.ca or call (613) 744-7783.
I read in a recent study that open, intimate and validating mother-daughter relationships result in daughters having an elevated self-perception and seeing themselves as successful. On its own, this may seem like a motherhood statement, but the study’s underlying research discovered meaningful correlations between a strong mother-daughter relationship and feelings of competency, self-esteem and success for daughters.
