”My parents don’t trust me anymore,” said thirteen-year-old Steve. ”Oh,” I said, but thought to myself, RED ALERT. This wasn’t going to be a regular sit-at-the-table-and-eat-pizza party conversation. My memory neurons buzzed, trying to find the listening/questioning tool I had recently learned called evidence and impact questioning. The gist of this two-step listening technique is […]
Need + Talent + Passion = Power
In his book The 8th Habit, Stephen Covey writes, ”When you can give yourself to work that brings together a need, your talents and your passion, power will be unlocked.” The bluntness of that statement knocks the breath out of me, because isn’t that what every one of us is looking for? We spend our […]
The Seeds of Passion
The purpose of education, I believe, is to help a child find his or her passion in life. Passion comes from the heart and not the intellect. It’s not about how much you know. It’s about how much you care. Enthusiasm is a synonym for passion with one of the definitions for passion being ”boundless […]
Geek or Greek?
The ancient Greeks taught that there are three basic types of appeals one uses to influence an audience: ethos, pathos and logos. Ethos is the call for a sense of ethics, a request for a person to engage a sense of right and wrong. Ethos involves the speaker’s basic credibility, integrity and competency, along with […]
Build Relationships With Frequent Deposits
Relationship building is work, and our relationships and the trust in those relationships are in constant change. We maintain and deepen our relationships with regular acts of kindness, consideration, appreciation and service. Every act of building a relationship is as if we are making a deposit into a savings account. We increase our balance by […]
I and Thou
In the creation of successful relationships, there are two essential elements: giving and taking. In quality relationships, each party gives more than he or she takes, providing each person in the relationship a stockpile of positive experiences and memories. This abundance allows us mistakes without dire consequences during times of change and growth in a […]
Seven Traits That Destroy Lives
Ever notice how a word, a phrase, a quote or a book title keeps popping up? The following Gandhi quote keeps showing up in my studies. Every time I read these seven statements I am astounded at the wisdom conveyed in so few words. Gandhi is attributed with saying that these seven characteristics are the […]
Three Gifts of the Human Being
From birth we are given at least three gifts to create positive change in our lives. When these gifts are nurtured, we can become the creative force in our own lives. The gifts allow us to become the writer, the director and the actor in the production called ”Our Life.” Choice. From the beginning, choice […]
Put The Big Stuff In First
An Ukrainian folktale called The Mitten relates the story of a lost mitten and a bear. The children in my class enjoyed this story, and they even turned it into a play. There are various versions of this story, and one goes something like this: One day a bear takes a walk in the woods […]
Punishing with Rewards
A fishbowl full of candy sat on the third-grade teacher’s desk. ”When you’ve finished your math assignment you can choose a piece of candy,” Ms. Marsh said as she handed out worksheets. All but two of the students went to work. Tamika and Jennifer looked out the window, math sheets untouched. Tamika began her calculations […]