I just read an article by Greg Toppo of USA Today. UVA cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham is the author of Why Don’t Students Like School?  Here is a question from an interview with the author:

Q: After all we’ve learned about the mind and brain, why is it so difficult to make school enjoyable for students?

A: School is all about mental challenge, and that is hard work, make no mistake. Still, people do enjoy mental work or, more exactly, people enjoy successful mental work. We get a snap of satisfaction when we solve a problem. But solving a problem that is trivially easy is not fun. Neither is hammering away at a problem with no sense you are making progress.

So the challenge for a teacher is to find that sweet spot of mental difficulty, and to find it simultaneously for 25 students, each with a different level of preparation. To fight this problem, teachers must engage each student with work that is appropriate for his or her level of preparation. This must be done sensitively, so that students who are behind don’t feel like second-class citizens. But the fact is they are behind, and pretending that they are not does them no favors.

For parents who are working with their children, the problem of meeting the needs of 25 is not relevant; however, sometimes the problem of perspective is. When does a parent know that their child is exceeding expectations? How does a parent know when a child is struggling – do we all have tunnel vision when it comes to our own children? I would love to hear from other parents on this issue.

Sometimes when I am working with my 9 year old on his writing, I think that while he is bright and knowledgeable, this is not shining through as much in writing as in other areas. But when I see his writing compared to others of his age group, I feel reassured that he is progressing at a decent pace. I guess my question to other parents is, how much of what we expect our kids to do comes from our personal knowledge of them as individuals and their capabilities, and how much of it comes from what we expect from any child of their particular age group?

- Heather