“Walker’s is a place with which I hope to always be connected.”
Educational Forums
The Ethel Walker School offers diverse and current forums open to the public several times per year.
Past speakers have included ABC News Anchor Bob Woodruff and his wife Lee, authors of In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabes, Joe Kelly, author of Dads & Daughters, Roni Cohen-Sandler, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and author of Stressed-Out Girls: Helping Them Thrive in the Age of Pressure, Jacques Steinberg, author of The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College, and Marie C. Wilson, founder and president of The White House Project, co-organizer of Take Our Daughters to Work Day, and author of Closing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World (Viking 2004).
The Forums focus on a broad range of family, parenting and women's issues and are held in the school's magnificent, non-denominational Chapel. Book signings, meet the speaker receptions, and refreshments are regularly offered.
Online registration for each event is offered starting approximately one month prior, and telephone registration is available at (860)408-4250.
Recent Forums
“The Father Effect: A Program for Parents”: Public Talk at The Ethel Walker School
Douglas Lyons, Ed.D., Executive Director of the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), former superintendent of schools in Mountain Lakes, NJ, and former head of Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich CT, offered a public program for parents who seek a better understanding of the influence a father can have on the development of his children on March 2, 2011 at The Ethel Walker School.
For most of history, the model of the autocratic, "breadwinning" father was unquestioned. Although many modern dads love and respect their own fathers and grandfathers, the current generation hopes for and expects a broader role in the raising of their children. "The Father Effect" was a program for parent to explore question such as:
- Do fathers play a potentially unique role in the development of their children?
- What determines a man’s style of fathering?
- How does Dad’s influence change over the years spanning infancy, early childhood and adolescence?
- Do men generally “parent” sons and daughters in a similar or dissimilar fashion?
- How do effective Dads balance career and family commitments?
- How can mothers best support and complement the role of fathers? How can fathers best support and complement the role of mothers?
Douglas J. Lyons, Ed.D. has been the Executive Director CAIS since July 2004. A graduate of Villanova University, Doug has Masters and Doctoral degrees from The University of Pennsylvania. He began his career in public education, serving for twenty years in the New Jersey public schools. In 1992, he left the Superintendency in Mt. Lakes N.J. to accept the position of Headmaster of the Greenwich Country Day School, Connecticut’s largest independent school. Dr. Lyons has served on many non-profit boards and committees, among them the boards of the St. Angela’s School in the South Bronx, N.Y., the Freedoms Foundation in Valley Forge, PA, the Connecticut Association of Independent schools, and The Community Answers Service Organization in Greenwich CT.
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– Windy, '03
