Back then I got straight A’s at school. Dermott sat behind me.
Dermott didn’t do his homework, tried drugs early, slept in class. I liked Dermott. He was one of the cool kids, always smiling. He accepted me, a nerd.
Deep down I thought I was on the “right path” and Dermott was on the “wrong path.”
Today, Dermott is one of the most successful businesspeople I know. He fell into Wall Street, got his own seat on the Exchange, has a beautiful wife of many years, and a rich family life.
Why am I telling you this?
My seven-year old is nervous about an aptitude test he’ll take on Saturday. It determines if he gets into the third grade “honors class.”
I told him about Dermott. Dermott didn’t “get started” until he was in high school. Dermott’s success was not contingent on his third-grade behavior.
“Zachary,” I said, “whether you get into the honors class or not will have virtually no impact on your lifetime success. Your success will depend on many things: Your interests, luck, who you meet in life, what you pursue.”
“You like to learn and we love you for that. You like to play soccer but you don’t score a goal every time. You don’t have to do ‘great’ on every test either. Feel good you are trying your best.”
Your child’s aptitude
My thoughts today, parent-worriers, is this: If your child has Dermott-like tendencies, don’t despair. How Junior does on his third grade math test will not likely have an affect on his/her future.
Do you agree?
Good luck from a fellow Dad,
:: Joe Hage ::
P.S. 7,000 kids in America die from sudden cardiac arrest each year. I set up a discount site at http://UrKidatSchool.com where 19 AED defibrillator to protect your kids at school are available (as of this writing). Please seriously consider getting one. (Disclosure: I work for the company that makes them.) Thanks.
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Joe, Great post, and so true! Every kid “finds his or her way” in different ways and at different times. My oldest, who was a less than stellar student in grade school and even high school, has thrived in college and really come into his own. Also as you point out, there are so many other factors to being happy and successful than pure education and how you are measured by our educational system. I think in our fractured world today, that is more important to recognize than ever. Thanks for the reminder!
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Joe,
I agree with @sass, this is a great article and one of the problems with the school system. My personal blog is MySpellingSucks.com. I call it that because I am an ADD Dyslexic and couldn’t even read until I was 11 going on 12. Yet today all the stress that I felt back when I was a kid worried about how I was doing in school has absolutly no effect. Today I have an MBA and have worked for some of the biggest/best companies. I’m actually pretty passionate about this topic because kids that were like me sometimes gave up and when they did they lost years of their life and some still think they are stupid today. I also know many of the honnor students who were always worried about their grades that missed just being a kid. They were always stressed about how well they were doing or studying for this test or writing that paper and neve got outside,never jumped off the cliffs at the falls, never lived. There is too much adventure in life to get hung up on a particular test. Thanks for this article.
PS One of my best friends sister died from cardiac arrest when she was in eigth grade. This is a GOOD project and I have no disclosure to make.
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Joe, Great post, and so true! Every kid “finds his or her way” in different ways and at different times. My oldest, who was a less than stellar student in grade school and even high school, has thrived in college and really come into his own. Also as you point out, there are so many other factors to being happy and successful than pure education and how you are measured by our educational system. I think in our fractured world today, that is more important to recognize than ever. Thanks for the reminder!
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Joe, Great post, and so true! Every kid “finds his or her way” in different ways and at different times. My oldest, who was a less than stellar student in grade school and even high school, has thrived in college and really come into his own. Also as you point out, there are so many other factors to being happy and successful than pure education and how you are measured by our educational system. I think in our fractured world today, that is more important to recognize than ever. Thanks for the reminder!
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Joe,
I agree with @sass, this is a great article and one of the problems with the school system. My personal blog is MySpellingSucks.com. I call it that because I am an ADD Dyslexic and couldn't even read until I was 11 going on 12. Yet today all the stress that I felt back when I was a kid worried about how I was doing in school has absolutly no effect. Today I have an MBA and have worked for some of the biggest/best companies. I'm actually pretty passionate about this topic because kids that were like me sometimes gave up and when they did they lost years of their life and some still think they are stupid today. I also know many of the honnor students who were always worried about their grades that missed just being a kid. They were always stressed about how well they were doing or studying for this test or writing that paper and neve got outside,never jumped off the cliffs at the falls, never lived. There is too much adventure in life to get hung up on a particular test. Thanks for this article.
PS One of my best friends sister died from cardiac arrest when she was in eigth grade. This is a GOOD project and I have no disclosure to make.
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Joe,
I agree with @sass, this is a great article and one of the problems with the school system. My personal blog is MySpellingSucks.com. I call it that because I am an ADD Dyslexic and couldn't even read until I was 11 going on 12. Yet today all the stress that I felt back when I was a kid worried about how I was doing in school has absolutly no effect. Today I have an MBA and have worked for some of the biggest/best companies. I'm actually pretty passionate about this topic because kids that were like me sometimes gave up and when they did they lost years of their life and some still think they are stupid today. I also know many of the honnor students who were always worried about their grades that missed just being a kid. They were always stressed about how well they were doing or studying for this test or writing that paper and neve got outside,never jumped off the cliffs at the falls, never lived. There is too much adventure in life to get hung up on a particular test. Thanks for this article.
PS One of my best friends sister died from cardiac arrest when she was in eigth grade. This is a GOOD project and I have no disclosure to make.
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Thank you both @sass and @kevin. “Joey is a Straight-A student” was enough to motivate me in grammar school. As a parent, I see there is so much more to those precious years than academic success.
P.S. If I could do college (NYU) over, I would have had more fun.
@kevin, do you think your best friend’s sister might want to write a guest blog at http://cardiacscience.com/blog? It’s a great forum to educate others about cardiac arrest. Just this weekend I’ve had two parents give me reasons why they would not buy a defibrillator. A bit discouraging, I must admit.
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Thank you both @sass and @kevin. “Joey is a Straight-A student” was enough to motivate me in grammar school. As a parent, I see there is so much more to those precious years than academic success.
P.S. If I could do college (NYU) over, I would have had more fun.
@kevin, do you think your best friend's sister might want to write a guest blog at http://cardiacscience.com/blog? It's a great forum to educate others about cardiac arrest. Just this weekend I've had two parents give me reasons why they would not buy a defibrillator. A bit discouraging, I must admit.
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Thank you both @sass and @kevin. “Joey is a Straight-A student” was enough to motivate me in grammar school. As a parent, I see there is so much more to those precious years than academic success.
P.S. If I could do college (NYU) over, I would have had more fun.
@kevin, do you think your best friend's sister might want to write a guest blog at http://cardiacscience.com/blog? It's a great forum to educate others about cardiac arrest. Just this weekend I've had two parents give me reasons why they would not buy a defibrillator. A bit discouraging, I must admit.
#
Thank you both @sass and @kevin. “Joey is a Straight-A student” was enough to motivate me in grammar school. As a parent, I see there is so much more to those precious years than academic success.
P.S. If I could do college (NYU) over, I would have had more fun.
@kevin, do you think your best friend's sister might want to write a guest blog at http://cardiacscience.com/blog? It's a great forum to educate others about cardiac arrest. Just this weekend I've had two parents give me reasons why they would not buy a defibrillator. A bit discouraging, I must admit.
#
Thank you both @sass and @kevin. “Joey is a Straight-A student” was enough to motivate me in grammar school. As a parent, I see there is so much more to those precious years than academic success.
P.S. If I could do college (NYU) over, I would have had more fun.
@kevin, do you think your best friend's sister might want to write a guest blog at http://cardiacscience.com/blog? It's a great forum to educate others about cardiac arrest. Just this weekend I've had two parents give me reasons why they would not buy a defibrillator. A bit discouraging, I must admit.
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