"School is stupid and should go die in a hole!" So says my straight-A, self-motivated, avid reader, curious, loves to learn 14-year-old daughter. What is wrong with this picture?
Jen Fox, author of Your Child's Strengths, put her finger right on it in her 12/9/08 blog, Road Block. Jen says, "The new question should be, 'What should children be doing that will both challenge and engage them to serve the ends of their own futures?' –not our idea of what their lives should look like." She's got it right.
While in New York City this week, I was astounded with the change in Times Square. For many years, Times Square was been like a video wonderland, images moving across every building. That had not changed. In fact, they found even more surfaces on which to beam their messages!
What had changed was the clarity of the images. Gone were the pixilated shapes and fuzzy colors. These images were clear and bright and distinct. These images captured my imagination. They made me want to pay attention.
And it made me wonder, is this the way it is with kids? Is this the way it is with our own minds? Do we walk around much of the time with fuzzy images that never capture our imagination enough to be manifested in real life? Are our communications to kids so general that they simply don't pay attention? Is it possible that what we need is high definition thinking?
Yea, it seemed right to me, too.
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