As a writing teacher, I love helping writers free themselves of certain not-so-great writing habits. It’s easy to trap yourself as a writer, going down well-worn paths, following forms and ideas already been done. Once you believe a poem or story should look a certain way, if you’re not careful, all your poems look that way. And where did you … Read More
The Gardener and the Carpenter
This analogy refers to different styles of raising a child. A “gardener” tends to the fertility of the soil—the access to sunshine, water and minerals allowing for the best development of his charge, while the “carpenter” has a fixed idea of the desired outcome—he cuts, shapes, smooths and joins his raw material until the final product has emerged. The book … Read More
The Power of Believing You Can Improve
There’s so much talk these days about the need for children to develop resilience and perseverance, to learn to be open to failing and trying again, to be willing to put in the effort when something is hard, to be up for a challenge. I don’t want to oversimplify, but I believe that Carol Dwek’s ideas are a big part … Read More
The Learning Environment
For many children, sitting at a desk in a classroom with books, or even with a networked computer, is not the environment that will naturally and easily allow a growth in all the eight intelligences that Howard Gardner proposes we all have (Frames of Mind, 1985). Our traditional school systems focus primarily on the first two, “Linguistic” and “Logical-Mathematical”, and … Read More