School Superintendent’s Breakfast

The Graduate School of Education at Fordham Westchester is hosting a Superintendents Breakfast with special guest speaker Amelio A. D’Onofrio, PhD, Clinical Professor & Director of the Psychological Services Institute at Fordham University.

Dr. D’Onofrio will be speaking on Being a Kid in the 21st Century: How the Pressures of Contemporary Life Can Lead to Disconnection, Despair, and Violence.

Being a kid in 2017 is vastly different from life just a few short decades ago. Parental stress, materialism, the ubiquity and influence of technology, pressure to achieve, perfectionism, uncertainly about the future, and other toxic cultural influences are creating a generation of disconnected and unhappy kids. Some of these kids are not only disconnected from others but from themselves and occasionally offer vague complaints of “something missing inside.” They lack enthusiasm and a sense of purpose and, when despair sets in, their depression, anxiety, and anger can turn to violence toward others or toward oneself through self-injury or suicide. In this presentation, we will explore how the contemporary landscape of childhood can cultivate despair in vulnerable children and how school personnel can identify problems and compassionately engage these children to help transform their sense of emptiness to one of hope.