ICYMI: Watch lecture by 'The Gift of Failure' author

By Anna Cramer & Joanna Hall, USNA Co-Presidents

Best-selling author Jessica Lahey will share insights from her most recent book, "The Addiction Inoculation: Raising Healthy Kids in a Culture of Dependence" during a speaking engagement co-sponsored by USN, Ensworth, Harding Academy, Harpeth Hall, and Montgomery Bell Academy. "The Gift of Failure" author Jessica Lahey uses her experience as a parenting leader, recovering alcoholic, recovery coach for adolescents, school teacher, and mother to help other parents navigate the complex topic of keeping our kids safe from substance use.

Over 20 years, Lahey has taught every grade from sixth to twelfth in both public and private schools. She spent five years teaching in a drug and alcohol rehab for adolescents in Vermont and serves as a prevention and recovery coach at Sana at Stowe, a medical detox and recovery center in Stowe, Vermont. Lahey writes about education, parenting, and child welfare for The Washington Post and The Atlantic, is a book critic for Air Mail, and her biweekly column "The Parent Teacher Conference" ran for three years at the New York Times. What's more, she designed and wrote the educational curriculum for Amazon Kids’ award-winning animated series "The Stinky and Dirty Show," and was a 2019 Pushcart Prize nominee for her Creative Nonfiction magazine essay, “I’ve Taught Monsters.” Lahey holds the dubious honor of having written an article that was later adapted as a writing prompt for the 2018 SAT. She co-hosts the #AmWriting podcast with bestselling authors KJ Dell’Antonia and Sarina Bowen, and lives in Vermont with her husband, two sons, and a lot of dogs.

In this parent education event, Jessica Lahey will provide empathetic and accessible resources for anyone who plays a vital role in children’s lives — parents, teachers, coaches, or pediatricians — to help them raise kids who will grow up healthy, happy, and addiction-free. This speaking engagement will take place over Zoom to account for high COVID-19 case numbers both locally and nationally. We hope to see you on Tuesday, January 25 at 7 p.m. Please register here to receive the Zoom link.