"When you look at a child, you can either see her strengths or her weaknesses. The choice is yours."
The above quote from the book, Your Child's Strengths: A Guide for Parents and Teachers by Jenifer Fox, M.Ed., resonated with me. As a home school family, we certainly strive to teach from the perspective of the strengths of our children, but I will have to admit that we often fall into the same old mindset of addressing the weaknesses.
I would definitely like to live in that world. Wouldn't you?
Your Child's Strengths reminds us as parents (and teachers) that the key to our child's success in school and life is to focus on his strengths. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line today's educational system decided that success means that every student be perfectly well rounded in all subject areas...regardless of where a child's strengths lie. And very few persons within our educational system are helping children discover and develop their strengths.
We seldom discuss the possibility that learning problems have their roots in a variety of places other than in the child's brain. We don't hear about a "teaching disability," a "parenting disability," a "school disability," or a "federal policy disability".
The label disability has as much to do with the setting and the requirements of the setting as it does with the person.
Ms. Fox reveals how parents and teachers can maximize kids' natural inclinations in three linked areas: Activity Strengths, Relationship Strengths and Learning Strengths. She provides first-hand accounts, as well as a user-friendly workbook for discovering and developing your child's natural strengths.
And they become frustrated and anxious when they are expected to demonstrate high achievement in subjects that don't seem important--especially if they lack a natural interest or talent in that area.
One last thought from Ms. Fox...and one that I have long held...
Personally, my family and I are currently working through the Play to Your Strengths Workbook portion of Your Child's Strengths. My husband and I believe this will be a worthwhile endeavor which will enhance the goal of raising our sons to know and develop their strengths.
Jenifer Fox, author of Your Child's Strength's: A Guide for Parents and Teachers, is an educator and public speaker who has worked in public and independent schools as a teacher and administrator for twenty-five years. She is currently the international leader of the Strengths Movement in K-12 schools. She holds a B.S. in communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.A. in English from Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English, and an M.Ed. in school administration from Harvard University.
For more information please visit www.strengthsmovement.com.
