609. Measuring

I just read a friend’s response to one of my articles. He liked it. He thought it was insightful and well said. He’s going to show it to some people he knows. There are many ways growing up has changed me, but my reaction to appreciation hasn’t changed so much. I may not blush as…

In a few of my columns, I’ve written about approaches with which I strongly disagree. Some, like spanking or sarcasm, I consider simply wrong. To me, they’re not matters of personal style; they’re things that should not happen in school, at home, or anywhere else. I’ve never spanked a child, but I have used sarcasm….

I rarely liked gym class as a child or adolescent. I remember dodge ball games, where I was supposed to try not to get hit with the ball. If (when) I did get hit, I usually got knocked over. I remember the trampoline, where I was supposed to rely on my sense of balance and…

I’ve already written an article about effort, but I realized, yesterday, that there’s a little more to the issue. A teacher asked me about a child with whom I’d been working. She said, “Do you think he’s trying?” My answer was, “That’s a complicated question. I think he’s trying to try, but I’m not sure…

Children can get quite upset about things that may not seem very important to us. Having the right pencil, sharpened just right. Being called on in class. Getting to show the class the thing you found outside yesterday. All of a sudden, there is a distraught look, a gush of tears, or a fight. And…

I’m writing this article the day after Independence Day. I realized, as I woke, that the word “independence” contains a prefix. We have a holiday to celebrate something we aren’t. In fact, on July 4, 1776, all we did was publish a document that said we weren’t dependent. It’s kind of like Groundhog’s Day; we…