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IN THIS EDITION

🍎 Why giving your 12-year-old a phone creates entitlement
🍎 The brain science that predicts your teen's future happiness
🍎 Join Matt Bowman LIVE with Coach Meg Thomas at 11am MT

💡 THOUGHT

EARN THE PRIVILEGE

"I actually see more parents create entitled children," says homeschooling coach Meg Thomas, mother of seven. "Parents give their kids all of these liberties... without having to work for it."

The 12-year-old who gets a phone "just because" learns a dangerous lesson: I deserve things without effort.

Coach Meg’s approach? Make privileges contingent on responsibility. If your 13-year-old wants mall privileges without adult supervision, work with them master necessary skills—like tracking spending and demonstrating trustworthiness.

While younger children benefit from instant gratification (clean room, then toys), teenagers (and adults, ahem) need to understand delayed gratification.

Want to hear more from Meg Thomas? OpenEd founder Matt Bowman is going LIVE with her TODAY at 11am MT to discuss their approaches to Open Education.

Watch it here or catch the replay later.

📊 TREND

THINKING BEYOND THE GPA

Forget GPAs. A new USC study found that "transcendent thinking"—the ability to connect personal experiences to bigger ideas—predicts teen brain development and future happiness, regardless of IQ or socioeconomic status.

"You have to go through the work of growing yourself," says researcher Mary Helen Immordino-Yang. Teens who showed more of this thinking had more brain growth over two years, which led directly to greater life satisfaction.

The kicker? Our current educational system "actually punish[es]" this kind of deep, questioning thinking in favor of "unquestioning compliance."

Read more at HuffPo→

🔨 TOOL

THE PRIVILEGE CONTRACT

Transform Meg Thomas's approach into action with a simple Privilege Contract system:

For younger kids (5-10): Instant trades

• Clean room → Screen time
• Finish homework → Park visit
• Help with dishes → Choose dessert

For tweens/teens (11+): Earned privileges

• Phone = Demonstrate responsible communication for 3 months
• Mall trips alone = Master budget tracking + safety protocols
• Later bedtime = Consistent morning responsibility

The key: "I want you to win," Meg emphasizes. Work together to identify skills they need to master, then celebrate when they achieve independence through effort.

That’s all for today!

– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)

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