This has been my approach. I read about cool stuff online in places like this one and I get interesting looking things and literally put them in the house. One kid devours them and has self-taught a great deal of math. I just feed the bear and

OK....the original thread is quite old, and the links provided in the first couple of posts are either broken or don't lead to the article referenced. Anyone out there have the pdf they would be willing to share?

Try this one: What a Child Doesn't Learn by Tracy Inman

THANK YOU, kcab!

Ditto. I did this all the way from 8th grade until I graduated.

You will then have to do this as an adult as well especially to get promotions or to do things.

I'm trying to think of the number of times that I've self-advocated.

I'm thinking that number is about zero.

Which is probably another one of my issues with life.

And the irony here is that you're a professional advocate for other people.

But yeah, I've definitely seen how not being able to self-advocate has hurt someone. I have a brother who can't do it, and his career has effectively gone nowhere. I remember once he was telling me his manager was planning to promote him to a supervisory position. Several months went by, and it was never mentioned again, but rather than buzz in the manager's ear about it from time to time to keep it on the front burner, my bro kept silent. When he finally spoke about it, it was a moping, "Well, I guess it's not going to happen then..." And my first thought when hearing this story was that if I were the supervisor, I'd point to this as the reason why you should never be promoted.

Self-advocacy isn't really a problem for me. If anything, I have to be careful not to go too far over the top... though there are times when you're dealing with a customer service rep and some self-righteous outrage is exactly what's called for. In those situations, my wife is all too happy to sic me on them.

The law is structured, so I'm not dealing with any kind of personal advocacy in terms of individual human relationships.

The techniques used for dealing with insurance companies and the government doesn't have much to do with person to person informal advocacy in terms of things like getting promotions within organizations or day to day personal disputes.