The book is called �Your Child�s Strengths� Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them. By Jenifer Fox.�
�While it clearly demonstrates how teaching strengths is pertinent to all students, this break-through model has a special ability to alter the course of how schools teach students who learn differently, moving from an international deficit model to a strengths-based one.�
�-Marcus Buckingham
Part 1 describes some of the ideas and practices that contribute to children�s feelings of weakness. Part 2 explains what strengths are and how and why families and schools should help children develop theirs. Part 3 offers a variety of workbook exercises that parents, teachers, or children can use to develop their strengths as well as a strength-based culture in your organization.
Bravo, bravo.
Children are not that different from adults. They want clear and realistic goals, expectations for their futures, and systems that will allow them to arrive at those goals feeling fulfilled and strong. They also want a voice in setting those goals and expectations for their futures.
Finally, Parents and teachers are often good at seeing the potential in children. They are inclined to point out talent and hope students develop these talents. However, in order for their true strengths to emerge and grow, children need to self-identify them, for ultimately they are the ones who know best what makes them feel strong. Adults can help in this endeavor. This is best for 8-12 year olds, but is great for any age. Even young children can begin to learn self-reflect. Most of our lives we are conditioned that it is inappropriate to talk about ourselves, especially the things we are good at. The more children are engaged in the process of self-reflection as an activity led by an adult asking them questions, the more they train their minds to spend time on thoughts that are exploratory and creative rather than learning to be argumentative and defensive. This habit can change children�s lives in a variety of positive ways. They will choose friends that strengthen them, they will gravitate toward jobs that are fulfilling, and will make decisions that will better put them in control of their lives.
This book is not about gifted children, but it�s about a nation of individuality and how standardization defeats the ends of education by leveling the product downward rather than up. It says of A Nation at Risk, the 1980�s pre-cursor to No Child Left Behind, �Unfortunately, the report spells out a means for schools and students to achieve renewed greatness that has nothing to do with identifying their talents or developing their strengths. A Nation at Risk is a weakness-based document, one that has instilled fear and anxiety in the American people, thus doing more harm than good.�
Well, there�s just a lot of really great things the writer said here in this book. The subject is the many benefits of chasing strength, of self-reflection and learning how to identify and refine precisely what about doing what makes us feel strong. We can use this knowledge to approach less favorite activities through the lens of strength if we can find the right angle by knowing ourselves. And she also gives us a vocabulary resource for discussing in an accessible way many of the points I read being discussed in a way that says this is really what all children need, but until it catches on let's try it on the kids who learn differently. �
Quotable Quote:
"It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it". �J. Brownowski, the Ascent of Man
It's really more of a manifesto for the grass-roots strength movement and positive psychology that really seems to be a step forward for us all. �I thought I'd share because it's got this great message that our passions will come from our areas of strength, not our weakness. �In our goal for well-roundedness we're often killing the relevance in what's being taught and kids want to believe they're being taught something meaningful; often a grade alone is not really all that motivating. �Not that there's no such thing as LD's or that they don't truly cause a struggle, but if we'd put half the effort into developing the strength areas as we do fixing kids, if we'd focus on what strengths they have rather than what they lack, then we'd turn the flawed deficit paradigm on it's head and improve academic performance.
I found it interesting that the book didn�t define strengths as being the same thing as skills. It didn�t define the opposite of strength as weakness, it said the opposite of strength is depletion. If an activity is not engaging an individual�s strengths, thereby energizing the person, the activity is depleting. �It described strength as the aspect of various activities that makes you feel engaged and energized when you do them, the things you do for and with other people that make you feel valued and competent, and the unique ways we all approach and understand new information.
