I believe that the pandemic has made me a more resilient person.
I’m able to handle certain stressors, like long-haul travel and government paperwork, with a new equanimity. Even my household chores are more doable than they used to be.
But this resilience depends upon rest. If I’m going to push past the bounds of what is comfortable, I also need to have time in which I’m able to retreat and relax, gearing up for the next challenge.
Read MoreAs students, the hunger for achievement and approval leads us in strange directions.
Some of us are ashamed of doing material that feels like "review," even if it isn't actually mastered.
We'd rather push through, no matter how uncomfortable and frustrating it is, than slow down, take our time, and master whatever it is that we're working on.
Where does this come from?
Read MoreMany adolescents are like periwinkles. They get so overwhelmed by the demands of school that they shut themselves tightly into their shells.
Some kids deal with school overwhelm by focusing on their social life or a preferred hobby to the exclusion of all else. The lucky ones have a few trusted friends or a peaceful family life to come home to. Others can’t find a safe harbor in any aspect of their lives.
While this feels like an emergency situation — and it absolutely can be — intensifying the pressure will only make things worse.
Read MoreImagine that everything your child knows and can do can be represented by nested rings.
The violet center represents that which your child has mastered.
The red outer ring represents skills and knowledge that your child has very little exposure to.
Too often, the learning process requires students to spend the majority of their time on shaky ground:
Read MoreMaybe it’s from mom. Or dad. Or grandpa or grandma…or their grandma and grandpa.
It probably goes back farther than that, because it’s so ingrained in most of us that we don’t even see it. To paraphrase David Foster Wallace, it’s like water to a fish — so ubiquitous we’re unaware of it.
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