NYT Times Columnist and Author Perri Klass Comes to Edgemont

The Edgemont PTSA is excited to bring Dr. Perri Klass to their next Parent Forum on Thursday, May 5th in Edgemont High School's LGI room at 7:30 pm. Dr. Klass's talk entitled "Live with Perri Klass, MD: Prescriptions for Practical Parenting" will combine medicine and motherhood, two topics not often discussed together.

Dr. Klass is a professor of journalism and pediatrics at NYU, as well as author of several books including "Every Mother is a Daughter: the Neverending Quest for Success, Inner Peace, and a Really Clean Kitchen" and "The Mercy Rule." Additionally she writes the New York Times weekly column, "18 and Under." She is also President and Medical Director of "Reach Out and Read," a national literacy organization which works through doctors and nurses to promote parents reading aloud to young children. She attended Harvard Medical School and completed her residency in pediatrics at Children's Hospital, Boston, and her fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at Boston City Hospital. She is also a mother of three children.

Dr. Klass gives wonderful practical advice to parents such as "acknowledge that parenthood is full of battles to lose" and "as children achieve autonomy they will carry our voice in their heads, then they will leave us behind." She urges parents to help children grow up to be strong and independent as they journey though their lives. Dr. Klass will discuss sources of stress in teenager's lives such as sleep deprivation and depression. The accomplished author lectures frequently and is a very warm, reassuring speaker and invites the audience to raise questions about raising children in today's complex world. As a pediatrician and a mother, Dr. Klass always looks at both sides of any adolescent concerns with refreshing candor.

The event is being organized by Laura Puhala, PTSA Vice President for Parent Forums. Laura heard about Dr. Klass from a fellow PTSA board member who had read Dr. Klass's recent New York Times column that discussed how to deal with your children’s questions about your own adolescence. Laura reached out to Dr. Klass and invited her to speak at Edgemont. She hopes that many parents from Edgemont and Scarsdale will attend this free event.

In the past the PTSA Parent Forums have hosted a wide array of speakers from Westchester DA, Janet DiFiore to Former Greenburgh Chief of Police Kapica to the author of "Get Out of My Life, But First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall: A Parent's Guide to the New Teenager," Anthony E. Wolf, Ph.D. Recently, Laura organized a showing of the film, "Race to Nowhere," followed by a panel discussion of Edgemont guidance counselors, psychologists and the high school athletic director. That event drew over 250 parents, residents and teachers. The PTSA also hosts an annual fall parent forum for parents to meet new key personnel at the junior/senior high school and a spring parent forum on the school budget where administrators and BOE members discuss the proposed school budget.

At the end of the parent forum, Dr. Klass will sign copies of her books that will be available for sale that evening or can be pre-ordered by contacting Laura Puhala at puh4@aol.com .

Live with Perri Klass, MD: Prescriptions for Practical Parenting
Thursday, May 5, 2011
7:30 PM
Edgemont High School LGI Room