We’ve known this for a while, but here’s another survey to add fuel to the fire: Parents tend to inflate their kids’ academic progress and deflate their kids’ emotional resilience. In a nutshell, they don’t worry enough about the fact that schools are increasingly unable to prepare students with the skills they need to succeed in college and the workplace–and… Read more →
Ninety percent of parents believe their children are performing at “grade level” or higher in their schoolwork, according to a Learning Heroes survey this spring. Yet only about a third of high school graduates are ready for college-level courses, writes Fordham’s Mike Petrilli in Education Next. Ignorance isn’t bliss, he argues. If students and their parents knew they weren’t on track… Read more →
It’s back-to-school time, which means parents’ inboxes are stuffed with advice and to-do lists about how to make this a successful year for your kid. This to-do list can look dramatically different depending on the age and grade of your student, but one thing remains universal: The need to keep the lines of communication open and honest. That’s why I… Read more →
One of my favorite articles makes me laugh and cringe. Titled “What Corporate America Can’t Build: A Sentence,” the piece describes the plight of top companies spending billions of dollars to send their well-educated employees to remedial writing classes. Sprinkled throughout the article are hilarious examples of poorly written, sometimes incomprehensible, e-mails written by people who hold advanced degrees or… Read more →