innovation incubator

From Briefings magazine, an article that pulls together much of the recent press about the outcomes of Montessori education:  we're not talking about higher test scores, though that may also be a secondary outcome.  No, we're talking about the development of personal characteristics that lead to creative, entrepreneurial leaders in business, the arts and sciences. 

The most difficult question being asked today in, around and about schools?  "How do we educate the next generation of inventive, creative and entrepreneurial leaders?"

Business writer Steve Denning answered the question this way:

“The biggest problem is that we’re applying a factory model made up of hierarchical bureaucracies and a focus on efficiency, scalability and grinding out graduated students.This system is run for the convenience of parents and educators and has little to do with lifelong learning that is critical to the future of the economy. When I started writing about this, people told me that we don’t need to invent a new system, it is already there. Montessori has been doing this for more than a century.”

Hyper-parenting

There's a spectrum of parenting styles with a sweet spot at "involved".

"Negligent" is at one extreme of that spectrum.  At the other is "hyper-parenting;". The so-called helicopter parent.  Can a parent be too involved in their child's life?  Read research about the college-age children of  hyper-parents.

Let them fail?

"Why parents need to let their children fail."

That succeeded in getting my attention.  My inner mamma bear growled:  "Ridiculous!  I won't let my children fail!  What a stupid idea."

But I was quickly surrounded by memories of swarming helicopter parents, hovering overhead to rescue their children from any pain or disappointment...

...and in doing so, rob them of the opportunity to learn to deal with it.  Life comes with pain and disappointment.  How we deal with it determines our long-term success or failure.  We only learn to pick ourselves up with optimism if we have learned to do so.  Like every baby learning to walk. 

As Scott Peck said, "We learn to solve problems by solving problems."  (not by having our parents solve them for us.)

What does a child learn
by owning their problems;
by dealing with failure and disappointment;
and by figuring out (or being asked by a loving parent or teacher), "so how are you going to handle this?"

What does he learn?
The 3 r's:
Responsibility
Resoucefulness
Resilience

Don't rob them by using the 4th R:  rescuing.