Americans want to succeed, not just survive. Americans have progressed beyond mere survival and are now concerned with loftier goals of prosperity and success. All of us fulfill many social roles, and a large part of our lives is spent developing a social network, which includes the total web of an individual’s relationship and group memberships. Social networks include our families, friends, and neighbors, as well as all others people and groups with whom we have ongoing relationships. People often create and maintain social networks for functional reasons, such as advancing their careers, for social support, and to promote a host of other interest and requirements. Social networks do not have clear boundaries, and their members may or may not interact on a regular basis. Moreover, people in social networks do not always have a sense that they belong together, nor do they necessarily have common aims and goals, as do members of a group. Nevertheless, social networks are a vital part of social structure and are extremely important in our everyday lives. Every person’s social network is unique. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 5

Teachers and leaders learn that an activity as simple as trying to keep a beach ball in the air as long as possible helps groups become more focused, cohesive, and fun. These are inexpensive interventions. For older children, some schools have installed workstations costing less than two hundred dollars where students can play computer games to help them focus and to improve their heart rate variability (HRV). Children and adults alike need to experience how rewarding it is to work at the edge of their abilities. Resilience is the product of agency: knowing that what you do can make a difference. Many of us remember what playing team sports, singing in the school choir, or playing in the marching band meant to us, especially if we had coaches or directors who believed in us, pushed us to excel, and taught us we could be better than we thought was possible. The children we reach need this experience. #RyanPhillippe 2 of 5

Athletics, playing music, dancing, and theatrical performances all promote agency and community. They also engage kids in novel challenges and unaccustomed roles like teaching an orchestral musical program in high-crime areas to keep children engaged in an indoor community activity that will keep them safe. Last year, I spent three weeks helping two boys prepare a scene from the play Julius Caesar. An effeminate, shy boy was playing Brutus and had to summon up his masculine energy to quail Cassius, played by the class bully, who had to be coached to act as a corrupt general begging for mercy. The scene really came to life only after the real life tormenter talked about his father’s violence and his own vow never to show weakness to anyone. (Most tyrants have themselves been terrorized, and they despise kids who remind them of their own vulnerability.) Brutus’s powerful voice, on the other hand, emerged after he realized that he had made himself invisible to deal with his own family violence. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 5

It may be tempting to debate the social roles, groups, institutions, and other social forces have such powerful influence on human behavior that we as individuals have virtually no choice but to do what society demands. Yet, it is abundantly clears that while people often conform to social expectations, in everyday social interaction, we also interpret the rules to suit ourselves, create, and manipulate meaningful symbols, present ourselves to others in a variety of ways, and are constantly interpreting and redefining the meaning of our actions. These processes are what guide and provide meaning to the social interaction in our everyday lives. These intense communal efforts force kids to collaborate, compromise, and stay focused on the task at hand. Tensions often run high, but the kids stick with it because they want to earn the respect of their coaches or directors and do not want to let down the team—all feelings that are opposite to the vulnerability of being subjected to arbitrary abuse, the invisibility of neglect, and the godforsaken isolation of trauma. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 5

Imagine that you are casually strolling across campus absorbed in thought. What happens when out of the corner of your eye, you notice that someone lounging on a bench is looking at you? Does your behavior change in anyway? Unless you are totally engrossed in thought the answer is probably yes. There is a basic change as you and the other person acknowledge and respond to each other’s presence. This is but one of countless forms of social interaction—the mutual influence of two of more people on each other’s behavior—that profoundly affects out lives. Social interaction is the building block of the entire social structure.  The right reminders at decision points will lower our requirement for closure. We can build an awareness of what we do not know about the future into our approach to the World by crafting methods to react quickly to change rather than trying to predict it. Ambiguity does not have to be paralyzing or distasteful. Under the right conditions, embracing uncertainty can in fact provide opportunities to innovate. It can inspire creative solutions, and might even help make us better people. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 5