Vicki Hoefle of Middlebury has been a parenting educator for 25 years. "I got into this as a new mother," she says. "I was fairly certain that I would be a crappy mother and I needed to get my act together before I ruined my first kid."
Part of that effort was developing a parenting style that avoids extremes like helicopter parenting, in which parents watch carefully over a child's every decision. Over the years, Hoefle has created a suite of parenting strategies that are aimed at raising resilient and self-reliant kids. In working with families, she tries to reduce the judgments parents make of themselves and their kids and focus on building kids' life skills through experiences, sometimes bumpy ones. On the next Vermont Edition, we talk with Hoefle about her approach, espoused in the book, Duct Tape Parenting: A Less Is More Approach to Raising Respectful, Responsible & Resilient Kids.
Also in the program, a new report by the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation says there are disparities in gender and geography when it comes to which Vermont high school seniors go on to post-secondary education. We learn more from VSAC president and CEO Scott Giles.
Broadcast live on Tues., May 13, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
