Posts Tagged Influence Youth

Spark the Joy of Learning

On October 19, 2017 / Blog, Learning

Image of a spark that represents the joy of learning.

Many teachers and parents often ask me how they can instill a joy of learning in children who seem to hate school. Since it’s true that you teach someone something they don’t want to learn, the question then becomes, “How can you create interest so that the young person will WANT to do what you would like?” In other words, how can you spark the joy of learning? Here are a few suggestions:

Let the youngster know that you understand how he or she feels and that you will make no attempt to change the youngster’s feelings. (This approach is often referred to as paradoxical in that as soon as you indicate you will not do anything, the person very

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Influence Youth

On June 23, 2015 / Effectiveness, Parenting

To understand how much more powerful it is to influence youth rather than overpower them, consider this short story:

A young boy was to start kindergarten the next day and was protesting that he would not go. A normal parental reaction would have been to banish the youngster to his room and tell him that he had better make up his mind to go because he had no choice. (Note: the youngster may have had no choice as to the decision but he certainly had a choice as to how he could react to it.)

Rather than taking this approach, the father reflected, “If I were my son, why would I be excited to go to kindergarten?”

The father and … >>>