When you are deciding what’s right for your kids, you probably seek out some trusted people to listen to. That’s how I started homeschooling. (And every trusted source told me to forget about curricula, but that’s another story.) Something I’ve noticed is that all the people who are telling us about education reform actually have a vested interest in the status quo. Which creates a chronic problem of intellectual dishonesty among school reform advocates. Read more
The world is full of advice about how to become a morning person, because in the work world most high achievers are morning people. I’ve spent a lot of time wondering why this is. In the morning, of course.
Last month, during Yom Kippur, I took the kids to synogogue. Usually we just do our Jewish stuff at our house. My kids are exposed to so few Jews in their life that I am able to celebrate Jewish holidays on my own calendar, on my own time, in my own ways. Read more
Question from a Reader: My wife and I have become increasing convinced that unschooling is the right path for our boys (grades K, 1, and 2). I love the idea of giving our kids the freedom, time, space and trust to learn by following their curiosity. At the same time, we think it’s important for them to pick up a physical activity and a second language and music. I don’t think their natural curiosity will lead them to do any of those things. (We know we’ve tried.) Read more
Here’s an episode of 60 Minutes where there’s a kid who got put in special ed at school and survived. In fact, they think the kid is “on track to win a Nobel Prize.” But what 60 Minutes really wants you to realize is how great 60 Minutes is for telling you about how the kid was caged for his genius but is now doing typical genius activity. Read more
I read a lot about how to give praise to children because so many child prodigies grow up to be disappointed, depressed low achievers. A lot of that sadness is a result of people telling the kid over and over again how great they are. It robs the child of incentive to do the hard work required for anything substantial, but also, it gives the kid no sense of control over their lives — they did not earn that greatness, they were born with it. So they feel that they have no ability to earn greatness, they just have to wait for it. Read more
When it comes to celebrating Independence Day, all I think of is how the rich colonists funded the war to stop paying taxes to England and then founded a national government so they could tax the poor people to pay back the money the rich people paid to fund the revolution. Read more
This is a guest post from Satya Khan. I met her when she hired me for a coaching session, and I’ve remained friends with her since then. She has a daily newsletter about her experience raising young children. Her writing in the newsletter is breathtakingly beautiful and wicked smart and you can check it out here.
My husband, who teaches at a private school, is against homeschooling our kids. “That’s the path to crazy,” he said, when I suggested it for our sons. But he wasn’t talking about them. He was referring to me. Read more
It’s a big day in the history of gay rights. The majority of the US population believes that gay people should be allowed to get married, which matters because married people get financial benefits and protections that unmarried people do not have. The majority of people in the US think it is illegal discrimination to deny gay people these same protections and benefits. Read more
Here’s this week’s photo from the GAP. It’s not my favorite. This one is. But now that my son has convinced me that we should go to the GAP each week after cello, I decided that I’ll document the new outfits. Maybe GAP will sponsor the blog or something. I should email them. Read more