Tidbit # 15-Strengths-Based Private Education at Scholars Academy
A strengths-based private education, at Scholars Academy, is a type of educational program that focuses on the individual’s unique talents and skills, rather than their weaknesses. While public schools have traditionally used an academic system focused on identifying students’ weaknesses, a private school with a strengths-based approach is designed to help students reach their full […]
TIDBIT # 12- AUTONOMY IN THE CLASSROOM
Kids go through various stages of increasing autonomy as they age. However, numerous studies have found that the stage that begins around 6th grade and continues through the teen years is unique. Unfortunately, this is what gives ‘the rebellious teenager’ an infamous bad rep. Home and street behavior are fertile ground for the flexing of […]
Tidbit # 11-Where are we going?
I’ve been turning around a few ideas these past months about college prep, test prep, high school classes, middle school requirements — “necessary” skills and knowledge and the energetic push to guide our children as best we can (while we can) to be successful, happy, productive individuals. Or at least, happy … or at least, […]
Tidbit # 8-How to Rest
A lot of people have written on this topic over the past 5-10 years, in particular. Major studies have been completed. The Harvard Business Review has just published an article about listening to your body and learning to relax, say no, the benefits of yoga — you know the rest. Let me start off by […]
Tidbit # 7 Hobbies
Is it possible to have a hobby you’re not serious about? I mean, can you actually casually do something and somehow resist the urge to try to be the best at it? Is there even such a thing as a “hobby” or are all hobbies really just another serious interest that you’ve decided you don’t […]
Tidbit # 6-Tuning in to acknowledge the vagaries of minds
When deep thinking and an impatient urgency to fully understand a concept and all of its applications are a student’s modus operandi, dialing back to master “the basics” and being tasked with biting off small bits until being permitted to delve wider and deeper can not only be frustrating; it can be downright demotivating! What’s […]
Tidbit # 3
As my kids have gotten older, more mouthy and self-assured in their positions, I have vacillated between being pleased not to have sugar-coated or avoided difficult topics or unpleasant realities, including the fantastic set of hypocrisies that are much of life, and very uncertain about whether I took advantage of their unusual capacity to deeply […]
Tidbit # 5-The Perfect Fit
We all want to fit in — some of us more outwardly than others! The desire to be seen and heard is the desire to be accepted, to be affirmed in one’s expression of self and to feel connected with others. There are different patterns to how different people go about fitting in, and the […]
Tidbit # 4: “The fallibility of innate talent”
Just the other day, I exchanged a lengthy text communication with a student who needed to write about a weakness he had overcome. He wrote me to say that he could not for the life of him think of any weaknesses. Thus far in his 17 years, he had had nothing but success in life […]
Tidbit # 2
How to start the year on the right foot? I feel safe in saying that pretty much everyone experiences some degree of anxiety about the start of the new school year, and as one approaches the end of high school, the real and imagined pressures mount. And because gifted kids tend to have heightened emotional […]