Executive Function Strategies Blog

“Please stop graduating.” I remember reading this line quite vividly in an otherwise comical card from my younger brother. It was both a sarcastic comment - he’d suffered through my high school, undergraduate, graduate and second graduate school graduations - and a serious one.  He was sick and tired of being outdone academically.  

Editor's note: This post features downloads to Parts I and II of Michael Delman's ebook series, Building Blocks for Lifelong Success: A Parent's Guide for Raising Successful, Independent Kids.

Unless we happen to be hosting all the relatives for the weekend, I imagine that all of us have time to look up from our computers and greet our family members when they walk through the door and take a moment to check in. Of course, parents often complain that kids won’t talk about their day anyway. Parents offer the following familiar scenario:

We all feel the need to be there for our kids. We want to spare them emotional and psychological pain. We step in as tutors, counselors, teachers, police, chief cooks, and bottle washers. Anything, no, everything our kids need remedied, we do our best to fix. As parents, we have an unending desire, an un-qualifying need to make things better for our children. We promise to be there, but we can’t always fix every problem ourselves.

What’s the difference between A and B in the following statements?

A: Raise your hand if you want to talk in class.

B: Every student needs a chance to contribute and be heard because every voice matters.

A: No talking in the hallways.

B: We respect others’ learning time by being quiet in the hallways.