Freyda Siegel, of Needham, is leaving her long time leadership position, Family Life Chair on the Massachusetts Parent Teacher Association (MassPTA) Board of Directors.
MassPTA honored Siegel at its annual meeting on March 15, 2008.
Siegel's work has always been motivated by PTA's main purpose, "How can we better the lives of children?" PTA is the country's oldest child advocacy organization with a nationwide network of state chapters and local units in schools and districts. The organization's mission is to be a powerful voice for all children and a resource for families and communities dedicated to improving the health and education of children.
"I am excited to be joining MassPTA to celebrate the many accomplishments of such a dedicated woman who has made a positive difference in the lives of thousands of children and parents," says National PTA president, Janet Harp Domene.
Siegel has always been one of the nation's most dedicated PTA volunteers. First involved in PTA in Chicago, Illinois, Siegel moved to Massachusetts where she joined the organization, then called "the Massachusetts Congress of Parents and Teachers." During her fifty years of volunteer service, Siegel has also served as a local unit president and vice-president.
Early in her professional career Siegel was a School Adjustment Counselor in Winthrop. After forty-years as a counselor at Lexington's Fiske Elementary School, she retired in 1999. Siegel always believed in putting the "T" into PTA. During her tenure at the Fiske, she was responsible for obtaining 100% teacher participation in PTA from the teachers in her school.
Siegel is the co-author of three books, The Magical Touch with Children (1976), How to Talk with Children about Drinking, A Parenting Guide (1977), and Tuning in to Children of Divorce (1997). For many years she wrote a parenting advice column "Dear Freyda" in the MassPTA newsletter.
Siegel has also been a popular guest speaker at conferences, colleges, and professional meetings around the country. She traveled throughout the Commonwealth giving presentations and workshops at PTA unit meetings and special events. In all her presentations and workshops she always emphasized that becoming involved in PTA was an important way to improve family–school relationships and parent-child relationships.
Siegel has presented at the American School Health Association, the National PTA, the Parent Effectiveness Training Convention, Massachusetts Department of Education State Conference on Elementary Education, the School Nurses Association, and at Harvard, Lesley College, Framingham State, and other schools. Her topics include Minimizing Sibling Rivalry, Building Children's Self-Esteem, Parent-Child Conflict, Peer Influence, How Emotions Affect Learning, Raising Kids in a Technical Age, and Peers, Parents, and Pressure.
Siegel's signature message was that the key to good parenting is "The Four L's" (Love, Listen, Limits and Let Go).
Siegel has a bachelor's degree from Emerson College, a Masters in Education from Boston University, plus 70 post graduate credits. She was a Parent Effectiveness Training instructor.
Siegel says that being a PTA member helped her professionally and personally -- making her a better school counselor. She received the Massachusetts School Counselor Association's Elementary School Counselor of the Year Award in 1993 and was chosen as one of three best elementary school counselors in the country by Oswego University.
A thank-you note written in 1997 sums up the way Siegel touched so many people: "Dearest Freyda, Thank you so much for sharing your advice and insights. Talking with you has given me the peace of mind to trust my daughter and to offer her the support she needs at this point in her life. Happy Mother's Day to you! You have been a blessing to myself, J and so many other mothers – helping us to be our best. Thank you, with love."