Tonight I attended an awards ceremony for the Area 1 schools in the school district. Braden was one that was chosen to win and award and I was told that it was a very big deal....we got there right on time, which is late, only to be met at the door by a nervous assistant principal. Ok, so it WAS a big deal.
About 5-7 students from each school received various recognitions-academic, citizenship, athletic, volunteer, etc. Braden was "up" for recoginition in Odyssey of the Mind, with recognition for his honor roll status and other activities. It was pretty neat.
As I sat through the ceremony I had quite a few musings. Understandibly this was a ceremony to (in our best Will Smith, Men in Black voice) recognize "the best of the best of the best, sir, with honors!" But it led me to think of my parenting style, the achievements, or lack thereof, of my children, and their futures and what they are achieving.
I am not a driving parent, meaning that I don't monitor the fine details of my children's piano practices, homework, athletics, etc...I don't think that my children would respond well to that anyway. I try to let them feel the natural consequences of their choices.
Sometimes I wonder if my children have enough of an internal desire to be "the best of the best of the best, sir, with honors!" Not that I need them to be first in their class or truly "the best of the best." I just want them to have the desire to achieve the things they are capable of.
Lots to ponder, lots to hope, lots to pray about, and lots to hope for.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
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2 comments:
Congratulations to Braden and the support the two of you give him and the others. Any comparison with Will Smith, by the way, has to be a good thing.
My goal in parenting is to find a way to instill in them the desire to pursue a passion. I believe they will be happy if they find something good to pursue with their lives.
The difficulty with that philosophy is the mundane task of getting them to pursue a few activities at time for a long enough period of time to figure out what they want to be passionate about.
Well, that and helping them understand what you are doing. I don't know that I am doing a great job at it, but it is fun to try and direct them to good things to be passionate about.
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