Involved Parents

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Before coming to Davis, while googling the place and its activities, I came across the Davis Parent University. It was logical to come across it since I was coming to a university in Davis, but this is a separate organisation altogether. From what I gathered from the web site, and particularly from their YouTube videos, this is an organisation that aims to bring parental education to the parents in Davis. It is a voluntary organisation that brings speakers from different parts of the country who have some knowledge or expertise to share with the audience of parents. They have typically published a book (or several) for parents about child rearing (or how to cope with bringing up children and not go crazy) and they come to Davis to deliver a 50 minute or so lecture and answer some questions. This only happens a few times a year and the speakers usually have very respectable backgrounds (psychologists, psychiatrists, medical doctors, etc.). Specifically, they are not just someone flogging a book nobody is interested in. 
I saw there would be one such talk only a few days after we arrived in Davis, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to get a feel for what the community of parents is like. The talk was to be held at Brunelle Theater, one of the auditoriums on the campus of Anabel's school. We were not disappointed. The presenter Jess P. Shatkin, MD, MPH (Vice Chair for Education, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Child & Adolescent Mental Health Studies (CAMS), NYU College of Arts & Science, Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Pediatrics), author of Born to be Wild, a book about why teenagers take risks and what we can do to help them to stay safe. I imagine the video of the talk will be up on YouTube soon enough, but I can tell you that it lived up to the expectations generated by the motto of the organisation (Listen, Laugh, Learn): it was amusing, but also interesting and insightful. 
The organisation was super slick and the moderator completely professional. I jokingly said to Gaby Wu that it must have been her cousin (she is called Pamela Wu) and Gaby replied that possibly, and the cousin of all the other 25 million Wus around the world!


   

The talk we attended was exactly as announced: authoritative, entertaining and thought-provoking. It is really a good initiative. I am not sure whether it reaches the parents who are most in need of these initiatives, but the door was open to all and it was free admission (contributions were welcome). 







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