Sometimes a child wants to be alone. We all do sometimes, don’t we? Please don’t take it personally; it may have nothing to do with anything you’ve said or done. Company is important to most people, to different degrees, but there are times when enough company is enough. I live alone now, and though there…
There’s a form of linguistic shorthand that adults sometimes use when they speak to children. Instead of saying, “I need to have you stop making noise,” some say, “You need to stop making noise.” Or when a child is doing something an adult doesn’t like, the adult may say, “You don’t want to do that,”…
A friend of mine was asked to speak at a graduation. She was supposed to say some things to people who were about to start looking for teaching jobs. She asked me to try my hand at speechwriting, and here’s what I came up with: “When I was asked to talk to you, I tried…
As a teacher, I spent my working day among children, and as a parent, when I got home, there were children there, too – sometimes even some of the same children. I was active in my daughters’ Brownie troops. And my younger daughter spent fourth grade in the school where I taught, and made friends…
Children have a variety of ways to tell us that they don’t think they’re able to do what we think they’re able to do. Some come right out and tell us. That makes our job easier. But some pout, and obsess on issues that may have nothing to do with the real problem. Some get…
I once overheard two children discussing magic. One of them said something which I’ve occasionally quoted ever since: “Real magic is make-believe; only make-believe magic is real.” As someone who doesn’t believe in some of the dramatic miracles others believe in (e.g., the parting of the Red Sea just in time for the Israelites to…
I volunteered to substitute for a friend at something called “The Homework Club.” It had been set up by parents who wanted to give children a chance to do their homework in an atmosphere conducive to actually doing it, with adults around whose only reason for being there was to give them appropriate support. It…
If you’ve ever been to an elementary school band or orchestra concert, you may have heard a rendition of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” from his ninth symphony. There aren’t a lot of notes in it, and beginning instrumentalists often don’t know very many notes. And yet it was written by Beethoven, and Beethoven was a…
The first time I heard a teacher refer to the parents of children in her class as “my parents,” it was confusing. But I haven’t yet been able to come up with another quick phrase a teacher can use to describe that group of adults. Like all groups, it’s composed of individuals, and most generalizations…
In my social circle, it’s not cool to make a big thing about age. So some of my friends are in their eighties, and some are in their twenties. True, most of my best friends are about my age (forty-seven, at the time of this writing), but I try to think that’s because of the…