Tonight I got slammed with more than 30 conferences. All great ones as usual, but more than 30 conferences after a full day of teaching leaves one feeling....well, slammed. But rather than break my commitment these next two nights, there are two quick truths I would share with parents if I could. Let me start with this little gem:
1) It's ok for your kid not to get an A.
I know that's shocking. Some parents frankly can't handle it. But in our culture of everyone gets a trophy, the number of parents who think their kid's a genius is pretty frightening. If your kid is learning, growing as a reader of more challenging text, learning to write to more challenging prompts, specific purposes and audiences, learning new vocabulary--if your child is improving and beginning to assimilate the content, than that C is something to celebrate. If they're pulling a B? Good for them. Stop focusing on the grade. Focus on mastery of the skills. Focus on the journey to mastering those skills. Focus on the fact that your kid is working his/her butt off to earn that C and praise them, encourage them, and empower them to keep working even when it's tough. Not every AP, advanced or average student is going to get an A all the time. If they do, there's a problem. If you earn an A simply for doing the work, that's a problem too. Now if they have a C because they're slacking off, not turning things in, or blowing off the tests, then we can talk about effort. But if they're working and challenged and earning a C? Lay off helicopter parent, and appreciate your kid for his/her abilities.
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