When people meet me, and find out that I work with young children, they are usually impressed. “Good,” they say. “Young children need the influence of a man.” I’m always a little annoyed by that reaction; I’ve worked hard to become good at teaching young children – I’m still working hard at it – but…
Beatrice came to school one day looking as if her world had fallen apart. Committed as I am to taking children seriously, my first approach was to show her my concern, and ask her questions, hoping to find out the nature and cause of the calamity, and perhaps contribute some helpful insights. This is often…
There are all kinds of intermarriages, and it could be argued that every marriage is an intermarriage; when two people marry each other, they attempt to find a way to bring along their separate selves, and to some degree, hold on to the parts of themselves they consider most important. Sometimes they don’t learn what…
Most teachers write lesson plans. These plans come in all kinds of formats. Some include behavioral objectives: “Given ten word problems involving addition or subtraction, the child will correctly solve each problem with at least 80% accuracy.” Some list materials needed. Some are simply schedules: “8:30 – Reading, 9:30 – Math, 10:00 – Recess.” There…
You may want to read this article yourself before you let your children see it. You may have been telling your children some things that aren’t true, and you may want to keep the myths going. I’ll try to cloak my references in verbiage. I, myself, have always tried to be honest with children, but…
Most of the reinforcing we do as parents and teachers is in response to what children do or say. That’s natural. It’s hard to give children credit for not doing or saying something they shouldn’t do or say; maybe they didn’t even think about it, and reinforcement may bring unnecessary attention to it. But I…
Please bear with me while I suggest an alternative way to look at distractibility. If you have a child who is distractible – perhaps one who has been diagnosed and labelled – it may be hard to hear this. If you are one of the diagnosticians, you may feel that my perspective on this issue…
In the 1950’s, Lucy got pregnant. Desi was the father, and he was married to her. He had been for quite a while. But still, it was a scandal. I was a child, and I didn’t understand the scandal. I remember thinking pregnancy was some kind of disease you got by doing something nice people…
Before I learned how to recognize and express my anger, I used sarcasm. I thought I was just exercising my sense of humor, and when people reacted by being offended and hurt, I thought they just didn’t get the joke. In my conscious mind, I was totally innocent, and could only pity the people who…
What you have already done and been usually contributes to what you do and who you are now. You may do all you can to wipe the slate as clean as you can get it. You may turn over a new leaf, and really keep to your new ways, but your past doesn’t go away….