I remember that as a child, I hated it when my parents or older brothers turned on the news, or any other program that featured adults talking to adults. I couldn’t imagine how anyone could like it, or why. if people didn’t like it, they paid attention to it anyway. I often noticed that the…
Many of us adults allow ourselves to have days when we’re not at our best. Some of us find people or circumstances to blame, and to varying degrees, and in various ways, sometimes those people and circumstances actually do deserve some of the blame. As hard as we try to be in control of what…
When I first started teaching and parenting, I kept hearing the message that teachers and parents should not try to be “pals” to children. I didn’t like that message. I didn’t like the way people said the word “pals,” and I didn’t understand why they didn’t use the word “friend,” nor what was wrong with…
Teachers develop vast repertoires of strategies for helping children learn. They get those strategies from courses they’ve taken, books and articles they’ve read, teachers they’ve observed, their own thoughts, and countless other sources. Some of those strategies make their way into plan books, but you can’t plan everything; sometimes you just have to teach by…
People who feel secure often like to try new things. That’s because even though security is great, it’s not all there is, and people do get bored doing what they’ve always done in the way they’ve always done it. Even if they do it very well, and even if they get lots of appreciation. We…
Sometimes a child says something cute, profound, or otherwise noteworthy, and I really want to tell an adult about it. Recently, a child asked me for help with a math problem, and as I was helping her, I realized that she didn’t need help at all. I said to her, “I get the feeling that…
I like to think that my articles give people new perspectives. Whether or not every article I write really does that, it makes me feel good if I think I’ve written something original, perceptive, and/or inspirational. If I write something that doesn’t seem to qualify, I delete it, or maybe file it, to be revised…
I recently had a talk with a mother who cares deeply about her daughter. She doesn’t want her daughter to have to deal with some of what she used to have to deal with in school. This woman has bitter memories of teachers who worked to prevent her from being who she was, and she…
I’ve often heard adults say that they’re still kids at heart. They say and do things to prove that they really haven’t grown up. And there’s an old song about the importance of being “young at heart.” I, personally, do not like to think of myself as a “kid at heart,” and don’t think I’m…
It will never cease to amaze me how well children can sometimes teach children things that we adults have to figure out how to teach. I’m pretty sure I understand why – it’s easier to help someone follow a path if you’ve just followed it yourself. You know which shortcuts work and which ones lead…