With this groundbreaking work, educator Jenifer Fox is poised to change the conversation about education in America. For too long, parents and teachers have focused on identifying and "fixing" kids' weaknesses to improve academic performance. Passionately written and informed by Fox's twenty-five years of experience, Your Child's Strengths turns that flawed paradigm on its head. Fox's strengths-based philosophy provides the tools to prepare kids for the future in a world that demands greater adaptability and creative thinking than ever before.Your Child's Strengths will give parents and teachers the tools to discover strengths in three main areas: Activity Strengths, the tasks that make you feel engaged and energized; Relationship Strengths, the things you do for and with others that make you feel valued and competent; and Learning Strengths, the unique ways you approach and understand new information. All three strengths work in tandem.Pairing inspiring firsthand accounts of success with practical workbook tools and an outline of the award-winning Affinities Program Fox has implemented at her own school, this much-needed book is a user-friendly guide for parents, teachers, and administrators that will improve individual performance and an indispensable road map for young people and society to a future that plays to strengths.
Jenifer Fox, M-Ed is the author of the book, Your Child's Strengths and the award-winning, groundbreaking strengths-based curriculum, The Affinities Program.
With 25 years of experience as a teacher and an administrator in a wide variety of pre-collegiate settings: public and independent schools, day and boarding schools, religiously affiliated, single-sexed and special needs schools, international and American schools, Jenifer Fox has set out to lead The Strengths Movement in Schools, an international educational movement aimed at transforming the K-12 system from one that focuses on the deficits and weaknesses of children to one that celebrates strengths.
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A struggling student in high school, Jenifer overcame her challenges through devoting her energies to discovering her strengths. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin- Madison and two masters degrees: an MA from Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English and an M-Ed from Harvard University.
Ms. Fox has written numerous articles and presented workshops throughout the country on the topic of school reform, teaching struggling students, parenting, and building on strengths to realize human potential. Jenifer's experience as an actor and a writer make her an engaging and compelling storyteller and speaker.
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Jenifer has lived in Denver, San Francisco's East Bay, the west coast of Florida and in the New York metropolitan area. As an independent school administrator her specialty is in 'turn-around' businesses where she is able to leverage the strengths of an organization to change it from an institution in a struggling weakened state to one that thrives both culturally and financially on its strengths.
Jenifer lives in New Jersey with her husband and two dogs.
In 2006, I traveled with business consultant Marcus Buckingham on his Go Put Your Strengths to Work tour. I was the educational expert on the tour, spreading the word about how strengths can help all kids be successful in school. I am the President of the Purnell School, www.purnell.org, the first strength-based high school in the USA. I have written my own book, "Your Child's Strengths, Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them." This book will give you many practical ideas about how to apply strengths in your home and with your children.
