Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Carnival of Education, and some ponderings and regrets.

The newest Carnival of Education is now up and running over on the L.A. Times' "School Me" blog. Click on over there and experience the extremely creative JukeBox of Educational Information. Remember, if you don't keep current, you won't know what's going on, and if you don't know what's going on, you forfeit your whining rights.

A zillion kudos to the fabulous Education Wonks for being the originator of this very excellent concept of bringing many educators' (that means teachers, parents, businesspersons, and all of us, you know. . . .) ideas and opinions together on one page, each week.

When the Wonks announces next week's Carnival and asks for submissions, I strongly encourage any of you with a good educational-type post to submit it. Learning from each other is one of the best ways to learn. Good examples are the very best way. Bad examples are the next best.

Our children are worth every penny, every drop of sweat, every tear, every peal of laughter, every sigh, every worry, every goal, every everything, that we can give them. And of course, one of the most important, and difficult, things we give them, is personal space. To stand back and let them reap the consequences of their own actions isn't easy for us.

But ultimately, of course, we all know, even while we try so hard to shield our children from any and all harm, that NOT to let those consequences fall on their precious little heads is the worst thing we could possibly do for them.

The more we hold an egg close and try to help it hatch, the more likely the chick will perish. It's a scientific fact.

But it's really, really hard to step back and watch that chick try. Without outside interference, it usually succeeds. WITH outside interference, it almost always dies.

Even knowing this, we still want to help. We resent others who remind us of the chicks.

We don't want our kids to become "THOSE kids, you know, with THOSE parents" in the history of the school and community. We all know what teachers and others think of kids who've never had to do anything for themselves and who have every natural consequence blocked by over-protective and indulgent and entitled parents. Not us. No way. Not my kid, and not me.

And then something happens and we are right there. Or kicking ourselves because we weren't right there.

I have no easy solution. That is because there IS no easy solution.

But whoever said raising children was supposed to be easy?