In the fall of 1960, I started seventh grade. I was twelve years old, and I’d just changed from a soprano to a baritone. Memorial Junior High School had seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, and I was put in the ninth grade chorus, where there was a baritone section. I felt as if I’d skipped…
One of my neighbors, Luke, who is five years old, just got a new harmonica. He was about to show me the sounds he can already make with it when another neighbor (an adult), who was visiting Luke’s father, asked if he could try it. The man played a few tunes, and impressed us all…
Racquel, a young girl, was upset. She dearly loved her mother, Fran, and also loved her mother’s friend, Judy. She enjoyed spending good time with both, both separately and all three together. But Fran and Judy didn’t always get along well with each other; sometimes they annoyed each other. Even though only Fran was Racquel’s…
Not everyone who is having difficulty wants to be helped. Of course, there are people who hang on to pride when they’d really be better off letting go of it. They turn away help they really do need, or at least help that would make their lives much easier. Some even react to offers of…
I like Walt Disney Productions’ film “Pollyanna.” For a long time, I thought I liked it because Hayley Mills was so appealing, or because I was so naive. I thought that I’d become a little more cynical when I graduated from the School of Hard Knocks, and I’d become disenchanted with the “glad game” Pollyanna…
I’ve tried to emphasize that there are many effective ways to teach – that a method or style isn’t wrong just by virtue of its being different. But there’s something I think I do wrong as a volunteer more than I think I did as a teacher. I’m trying to stop doing it, but I…
We all need to feel as if we’re lovable and capable. If you feel that way, and you’re secure about it, you don’t have to prove anything. If you know you’re loved, you don’t have to win any popularity contests. And if you’re great at needlepoint or basketball, it may not matter to you so…
When people get married or have children, they make commitments. It could easily be argued that having children is more of a commitment than getting married; you may not always be your present spouse’s spouse, but you’ll always be your children’s parent. New spouses aren’t called “stepspouses;” they’re just “spouses.” But someone who occupies the…
People move to different homes a lot more than they used to. It’s a lot harder to develop a sense of community than it used to be; stability makes community easier, and stability isn’t around as much any more. But there are still connections children and other people make, and I think it’s important to…
I know it wasn’t too long ago that I wrote that there’s not much we can do about the social world of children. I advised a parent to listen to a child’s social problem and express caring, but not to try to solve the problem. I said adults have to come to terms with children’s…