I’m in the middle of Julie Lythcott-Haims’ fabulous recent book, How To Raise An Adult.
In it, she lays out the ways our society has gone astray in child-rearing, leading to a rash of overgrown children rather than adults. She then lays out a number of suggestions for how to right the ship, giving our children the self-efficacy they need to succeed in the world.
I highly recommend the book: it will be influential on my teaching as well as on my own parenting. I have encouraged my school district to invite her as a guest speaker, and will be recommending it to parents and teachers as often as I can.
It’s our responsibility as teachers to do many of the same things she urges parents to do: encourage emotional growth, maturity, and personal development in our students. We can’t afford to treat these traits as someone else’s problem; part of our job in every subject, from elementary school on, must be to encourage increasing autonomy and self-efficacy.
As you’re waiting for your copy of the book to come in, watch her fabulous TED Talk, posted a few weeks ago. Watch it now!
Love and chores!