Lightfoot's Chapter 2 - Natural Enemies

For as many 'gems' as I got out of this chapter - I had a hard time with the title. The points about natural enemies and the love-hate relationship were good, but the immediate connotations I associated natural enemies with the parent-teacher relationship.

It made me think about a 'conflict' that exists naturally between parents and children. Children are wired to expend energy and adults are wired to conserve energy. These natural and normal tendencies are often at odds. But, they are a fact - and they must be reconciled. Just another interesting piece to the 'natural enemies' idea.

One quote from the article that really struck me was 'conflict, therefore, is not to be avoided." Wow - that can be quite scary for those who do not like conflict. The point was we must be able to stick up for what we believe (with research backing it up) is to be best practice for that child.

There were many great techniques in how to deal with parents - but the really specific example of having the communication with the parents include the 'ASK ME' questions was practical and really useful. What a great way to get conversation happening at the family level - give them ideas to ask the child about. I know from experience that a child will often just start talking if you can ask a question that has to do with something specific they did that day as opposed to the generic 'What happened at school today" - which always gets the 'nothing' response.

My last gem was the idea of a map and defining boundaries. They are flexible teacher to teacher, but must be defined for both the teacher and the parent's sakes.