Thank you, Gary Steinberg

There are some big changes coming at Academy MetroWest. The biggest is the impending retirement of our co-director and co-founder, Gary Steinberg. Gary’s career with the Academy started in the late 60’s. His uncle founded the Academy back in the 1950s as a self-defense program for children. It shifted its focus over the years to concentrate on cooperative physical activity […]

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Academy MetroWest Talks Social Skills on iCommunicate

On Friday, May 18th, Academy MetroWest Director, Bruce Sabian, had the opportunity to sit down for a radio interview with Mark Altman, President of MindSetGo. MindSetGo is a business that helps children, adolescents, and adults learn to enhance their communication skills and differentiate themselves. The talk focused on social skills, child development, and Academy MetroWest. The interview aired on WCRN […]

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Immaturity is a Sign of Maturity

For the past few years, the membership in one of my Monday groups has remained consistent. It’s a group of 5th and 6th grade boys, some of whom have been in the group since 1st grade. These boys are a cohesive bunch but they can be pretty contentious. A former colleague of mine had a funny way of describing groups […]

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A Hidden Perk of Working with (Middle School) Kids

In a 75 minute group here at Academy MetroWest, we spend about 60 – 65 minutes in our gym playing cooperative games with our kids. Cooperative physical activity is the primary focus of our program but during most sessions, we spend the last 10 minutes or so in our offices having snack and doing some quieter activities with our group […]

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Book Review: Late, Lost, and Unprepared by Joyce Cooper-Kahn and Laurie Dietzel

“Bruce has been a positive factor in our program, as he is committed to doing a good job, is enthusiastic, and will push himself even if he is not really into a particular group. He does not have any glaring weaknesses although he could be a bit more organized.” Dr. John Cloninger, Ed.D – 12/23/88 Yes…A BIT more organized. The […]

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Encouraging or Pushy?: A Father/Daughter Baseball Odyssey

Early this month, Academy MetroWest hosted a free workshop for parents. Dr. Joe Moldover, a top-notch neuropsychologist in our area, talked about Non-Verbal Learning Disability, Asperger’s Syndrome, and High Functioning Autism. At one point during his presentation, Dr. Moldover  described the way kids with these profiles learn social skills by comparing the process to teaching baseball to little leaguers. With some players, if you […]

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“I’m Not Arguing!!!” – The Battle Over My Office Chairs

In my office, I have two green chairs that are more comfortable than my other office chairs.  As chairs go, they’re entirely unexceptional. They’re comfortable enough but not extraordinarily so. But if you were to watch the way some of our kids argue over them, you’d assume they were truly heaven on earth for the butt cheeks of our nation’s youth! Groups at […]

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Albus Dumbledore and Guilty Old Men

I spent a lot of time this summer listening to audio books. It was not entirely of my own volition. I brought my 9 year old daughter with me to our camp for 3 weeks. Between our commute – about 30 minutes each way – and then our family trips to upstate New York and  Downeast Maine at the end […]

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Making It Up As You Go Along…Or Not

Before I went to graduate school and embarked on a professional career, I flirted with the world of hippie-dom for a few years. I was  captivated by Jack Kerouac’s writing that extolled the life of on-the-road spontaneity and the freedom to “dig” all that was around us. I spent my share of time at Grateful Dead shows, captivated as I was […]

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Book Review: Parenting Without Panic

A few years ago, a couple of teenage boys I was working with asked me a question that must be on the mind of many an adolescent: “Bruce…is bastard a swear word?” I answered that it depends on the context in which it’s used, whereupon one of my young charges replied “Screw context! What the hell has it ever done […]

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