Things I believe
I believe that
nurture trumps nature most of the time. While I would argue that there are undoubtedly some humans born who are destined to
grow into sociopaths and psychopaths ("put the puppy and the knife down, Damien!"), most humans are equipped at birth to
mature into reasoning and reasonable persons. I say all that to say this: It is
far more likely that your child's school behavioral problems and/or issues, if
any, are the result of patterns and expectations either inculcated (or not) at
home from early childhood. The odds that your kid is always right and everyone
else is wrong are relatively tiny. If you are a whiny, entitled adult, the likelihood
of your children being the same is high. If you would have your offspring mature into competent adults, act like one. In 20 years of secondary education experience,
I rarely if ever saw a bad apple without the tree being close at hand.
On a parallel
note. If you want your child to take "challenging" courses to pump up
their transcript, know this: the world of business doesn't give a rat's ass about
the course title, but they care about how diligently you work. The same is true
(or should be) of upper level secondary school courses. We are confronted, on occasion, by parents who are apparently stunned,
ergo angered, by their child's actually being graded commensurately with
their effort, whether that merits an "A" or a "C." This
isn't Little League, and there are no participation awards!
When you as a
parent "hover" in and make the accusation that the entire educational
system is wrong and your child flawless, you indict yourself. This is not to
say that, on occasion, children are blameless
and the system is at fault. That happens, but probably about as often an I one putt every green over
18 holes of golf.
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