“Are you a homeschooler?”
Artificial Intelligence
As I sat in the waiting room of a doctor’s office not too long ago, I flipped through a family magazine and was taken aback by an advertisement. The picture showed a mother with a baby in her lap, both looking enthusiastically at a computer screen as flashcard-like images of apples and dogs and the Eiffel Tower played before them. In bold letters, the advertisement promised a computer program that would make your (otherwise dreadfully average) child a genius.
Learning to Be a Successful Failure
Learning is risky business. Think about it. Anytime we try something new, we are destined to fail before we can succeed. A child’s first steps often end with a fall. Scraped knees and colorful bruises are the tuition many children pay as they learn to ride a bike. And no child ever picked up her first book and read it cover to cover. When we invite children to learn something new, we are indeed inviting them to be brave enough to fail, so that they can learn to succeed.