Sublime

When a student is struggling to meet educational goals, those supporting that individual should question the design of the instruction, not the abilities of the individual.

Right through middle school Sam was a good but not great student, defined mainly by his disinterest in whatever his teacher was saying. “I was obedient in that I wouldn’t do shit I wasn’t supposed to do,” said Sam. “But I wouldn’t necessarily do shit I…

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By protecting our children from adversity, have we made them deathly afraid of it? By bolstering their self-esteem with false praise and a lack of real-world consequences, have we made them less tolerant, more entitled, and ignorant of their own character defects? By giving in to their every desire, have we encouraged a new age of hedonism?

Not long ago I read an interview with a teacher who had come up with an interesting way of approaching revision. She’d labeled student work either publishable or revisable. In other words, it was either something good, or something moving in that direction. So much of editing feels like harsh judgment. This was promise.

Our schools allow kids less exercise. They allow kids less play. They create more anxiety, because of the frenzy of tests. They don’t create conditions where kids can find their intrinsic motivations. And for many kids, we don’t give them opportunities to develop mastery—the sense they are good at something.

As the son and grandson of a trio of teachers, I wondered how often my parents and bubbie had to help a student exit an emotional spiral.