Encouraging Passionate Learners Even When It’s Not Your Thing

I’m writing today over at Simple Kids.  Here’s just a taste:

I have vivid childhood memories of trekking down to the pond near our home and catching as many tadpoles in my bucket as my scrawny arms could carry.  I was fascinated by the process of metamorphosis and would check on them every day in the shed where I kept them, marveling over each limb as it appeared.  Once the tadpoles had fully transformed into tiny toads, my sibling and I would line them up in our driveway and race them down the lane as they made their way out in to the wild world of pastures, fields, and ditch banks that surrounded our rural home.

I was passionate about toads.

And my mother hated them.  But I never knew.

This was the woman I had seen pick up a snake by the tail and toss it out of her way.  She wasn’t afraid of anything.  It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I realized toads made her feel skittish.  Repulsed.  Almost phobic.

As a child who was perpetually on the hunt for another amphibian, I never once remember her telling me that they were disgusting.  Or that nice girls don’t play with toads.  Or that I needed to find something “cuter” to spend my time on.

We have a powerful influence as parents.  Our words and our attitudes are often reflected back to us by our children.  This can be a great thing.  It’s often how we communicate what our family values and what our expectations are.

But our comments and actions can transmit negative attitudes as well, sometimes unintentionally.  And the significance may be greater than we realize.

Read the full post at Simple Kids!

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