There’s always a reason for someone’s behavior.
Another saying of my uncle’s is, “No one behaves badly because they feel so good.”
In other words, if someone is acting like a jerk, they probably feel awful.
Unpacking this can get very complex and require the assistance of a trained professional. But for kids, it’s often much simpler: They’re hungry, tired, or they need a hug.
Read MoreThere are lots of kids out there who have never felt that a teacher understood them or liked them. The teacher who treats a student like a human being, giving them the benefit of the doubt (along with the space to mess up) is a teacher who will have a fan for life.
I'll never forget one moment with a student -- let's call her Anna -- where I saw this clearly.
Read MoreThe other day, I was playing with my little nephew. He was intent on going down one of those small plastic backyard slides.
Like many toddlers, he likes to carry things around with him, especially balls and toy cars. With a ball in his hand, it was challenging to climb the steps to the slide platform, but he managed.
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.
Read MoreOne of my students, age fourteen, is an accomplished amateur ornithologist.
The other day, we were looking at a picture of a bird. I said it looked like a house finch, and he said something like, "No, this bird’s [technical term] is more [technical term], and its wings have [technical term] along the [technical term]. They look nothing alike.”
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