Saturday, September 06, 2008

The drive to be number one

Debbie makes some great points in her recent post titled "One week in town and ranting all ready...". This particular quote is very thought provoking:

"I read somewhere online the other day that over 80% of parents encourage their kids to be at the top of their class!!! Over 80%!!! Now I know it's been awhile since I have sat in math class, but it doesn't take a genious to know that 80% of all kids will not be at the top of the class. So what about all those kids who fall short?? How do they feel when they know their parents want them to be number 1, or at least number 2 or 3, in their class, but they just can't do it?"


There's nothing wrong with encourging our children to be the best they can be, but there is something wrong in expecting them, and passing that expectation on to them, to be "the best" at whatever they are involved in. Failure is inevitable if that is their expectation because nobody is best at everything. We need to encourage our children to compare themselves to themselves, and steadily work at improving themselves, rather than compare themselves to others and try to surpass them. Big difference.

Comments lead me to great site

Just yesterday Julie commented on a post I made a while back. This lead me to check out her site. What a great find!

Homeschooling Ideas is where Julie, an experienced home educating mom of 6 years living in the UK, collects homeschool ideas to share. Lots of great stuff here!