609. Measuring

Children need to be heard. Caught up in the juggling acts of teaching, parenting, and/or myriads of other adult activities, we lose sight of that truth, or let it slip into a lower priority. From what I’ve seen and experienced, it’s often overshadowed by another truth: we adults need to be heard. It’s not something…

A few teachers tried to teach us how to take notes. And some of us learned how to do it. Gloriana, who later became our valedictorian, was great at it. Her notes were always arranged in outline form, and written in what looked to me like calligraphy. Sometimes, I’d watch her take notes, hoping to…

I recently had a conversation with a friend who had a stroke a few years ago. She is paralyzed on one side of her body, and like me, has to do things more slowly than she used to. That can be quite frustrating. It takes her longer to do simple tasks most people take for…

Advice is a touchy subject. In this paragraph, I’m going to give you advice that I think is phrased ineffectively, and in the next paragraph, I’ll try phrasing it better. Here goes: don’t tell people what you think they should do. When you tell people what you think they should do, you’re casting yourself in…

On some days, your child walks into the classroom and sees an unfamiliar adult face. The teacher isn’t there, and some other adult is there instead. For some children, once in a while, this is a treat. Either a day without the teacher is not such a bad idea, or this particular substitute is fun…

If I were playing an instant-word-association game, and I heard the word “laughter,” I might say, “joy,” or “fun.” I usually think of laughter as a good thing. I like laughing, and I like getting other people to laugh. I’ve always preferred to have people laugh with me, not at me, but there have been…