Teens are paying attention

Carrie Silver, director of Furman University’s educational outreach program Bridges to a Brighter Future, has words of encouragement for parents who are raising teens in an unprecedented time of COVID-19 mingled with racial disharmony. In a letter to the editor of Greenville Journal, she says parents need to be especially mindful of listening to their teens, talking with them, and opening up about their own struggles as they deal with the pandemic and social unrest. “We (parents) can model how to view this (time) as an opportunity to evaluate what is truly important to us and the value of human connection. We can model how to use our voices to stand up against injustice, and that using heartbreak and anger to fuel change can be a powerful weapon,” she wrote.