Even though kids are a work-in-progress, their current knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and motivation can lead to more learning and achievement. They may also bring a unique set of core personal strengths, such as patience, self-confidence, persistence, and many...
If your child should receive a request for a nude pic, how do you think they would react? You'd be surprised how many young people would laugh and consider it a harmless, fun thing to do, perhaps a way to be included with the cool crowd, never thinking about the...
ADULTING: "The practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks." I borrowed this excellent definition from an online search; the term is too new to be included in the Merriam-Webster...
"There's nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly." - Buckminster Fuller This quote made me think of my West Point class. Before I arrived there, I had made straight A's for 12 straight years, graduating as valedictorian. But during my...
It seems like yesterday when I published Conversations with the Wise Uncle: The Secret to Being Strong as a Teenager and Preparing for Success as an Adult (First Summit, 2012). Eight years ago! It's a series of stories about a young boy named Chris and his uncle Ray,...
A young father was telling me about his two children, a seven-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy. "My daughter is an angel, but my little boy is a terror. He defies me every chance he gets. At lunch I asked him to come to the dinner table and he refused. That...
"I was a terrible student," he said, "always staring out windows or looking at the clock, waiting for class to be over." From a very early age, the only thing that interested him was excitement, danger, and risk-taking. He considered schoolwork pointless, and...
I once had a conversation with an intelligent woman about the value of team sports. She said emphatically that the idea that team sports promoted teen development was utter nonsense (not her words) and that team sports promoted aggressiveness and generally callous...
When I was a little kid, my mother read child's books to me. I loved the stories, and I begged her to read them to me over and over. But on my first day of school, I told my mother I wasn't ready, because I didn't know all my ABC's. As she helped me put on my jacket,...
My wife has an amazing mind. She's always my first reader for feedback about my work. She catches nearly all mistakes, points out ways to improve my writing, and makes helpful recommendations. I know why she's so smart. According to her, her mother read to her while...