You may have heard people say, “you’re only as happy as your unhappiest child…” I try to remind myself: that’s only true when I choose to let it be. I try to remember this when my child is going through a tough time. It can feel more painful to see her suffer than to [...]
Making the Right Connections in School and Out
Connecting with our highest selves, Connecting with others, Connecting with loved ones. Connection matters more to success in life than high school grades or college ranking.
Making time, space and money for connection makes a difference and these posts offer you ideas for improving your connections and those of your students:
- Expanding Sports and Arts
- Reducing homework and school pressure to increase family connection
- How connection can change a life
- Keep school performance from damaging your connection
Now, it seems that “how to be happier” is everywhere. And here’s the irony: it dawned on me today that now when I read about happiness, I sometimes think, “Am I happy enough? Are my kids happy enough? Are my clients happy enough? Am I doing enough of the right things to make us as happy as we should be?”
Suddenly, I get it. I see why people can feel worse when they see and hear all this happy talk. [Click title to read full post].
Not seeing the best in our students is not as much an issue for them as it is for us. Many of them go happily along feeling free and knowing they just want to stay under the radar of parents, school, teachers and traditional expectations. Jimmy, for example, is a C-student who, “… trained us. [...]
I sometimes wonder why so much of what is considered “good literature” for ourselves and for students has to be dark, depressing, or unhappy. I’m not against stories in which something bad happens, but knowing that bad news seizes and clings, while good news slides right off us, I like to prime myself with uplifting [...]
If a young adult you know is in the bottom 80% of the class, you may have been told that she is “an underachiever” (a polite way of saying lazy or dumb). Ask yourself, “Underachiever compared to what?” Compared to the narrowly-defined, standardized measures of school performance? Or compared to the abilities that will help [...]
Originally posted on February 21, 2007 What would you expect to hear from a would-be superintendent if you asked him what he wants to change in the public school system? Smaller classes? Stronger academics? Improved test scores? These are often the words we hear proclaimed when discussing school improvement, so I was surprised and delighted [...]
“Do you agree there is too much homework?” parents (and sometimes teachers) often ask me. My short answer? “Usually.” So, if you’re one of those who question the amount of homework students get, you’ll be happy to see the 3 biggest reasons to reduce it. When my own daughters were going through high school (two [...]