Many parents are trapped in an exhausting cycle of negotiation with their children. The results of Britain's "strictest headmistress" suggest a counter-intuitive path to happier, stronger kids. (Gathered from several interviews of Katharine Birbalsingh of Michaela Community School, UK.)
Parents choosing a school often face the same question: wouldn't a bigger school offer my child more?
It is a fair question. Larger schools can offer more subjects, more clubs, more facilities. For twenty years we have answered it the same way — that what a child gains from being known outweighs what a larger campus can list in a brochure. But that has always been our conviction rather than our evidence.
Children soak up whatever they hear and see most. That is a warning, and it is also an opportunity. A father's story about pop songs, a CD player, and a three-year-old, and how to use the power of exposure on purpose.
If you are a parent, you have probably asked yourself this more times than you can count: would my child be better off in a big school?
I asked the same question years ago — and I confess I had a bias, because I believed in the answer before I had looked for it. So I went looking for what the research actually says.
Your child dropped from first to third in class. Is that a step backward? Not necessarily. Here is how to read your child's progress in context, so that the pressure to be number one doesn't cost them their love of learning.
Will playing Mozart make your child smarter? Probably not, and that's okay. Here is what the research really says about music and children's minds, and why music is still worth every peso and every practice hour.
