Monthly Archives: February 2011

Test Less

Posted on 02/28/2011 by carlynchatfield

If your student easily passed his or her TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills)  tests last spring, shouldn’t s/he be eligible to skip the same TAKS tests this year? Today’s Off the Kuff blog posting describes an exciting proposal … Continue reading →

Posted in Comm300, Education, Houston, Parenting | 1 Comment

Street corner punishment for low grades

Posted on 02/23/2011 by carlynchatfield

Black and Married with Kids (BMWK) has some very good articles about parenting, but when I saw the title of a post about a mom making her kid stand on the street corner as punishment for bad grades, I didn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultures, Education, Parenting | 1 Comment

Learn to take risks, even if you quit later

Posted on 02/20/2011 by carlynchatfield

Long before I considered “the Amy Chua question: are we raising quitters,” the parenting regret that I gnawed on most was not making my children stick to something for a very long time. I wish my kids had found their … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultures, Houston, Parenting | Leave a comment

Love languages

Posted on 02/18/2011 by carlynchatfield

Most people communicate in the manner they want others to use with them.  Love, in particular, has five different “languages,” according to Dr. Gary Chapman. Learning which of the five love languages applies to your child can be helpful in … Continue reading →

Posted in Comm300, Education, Parenting | 2 Comments

Is college worth it?

Posted on 02/17/2011 by carlynchatfield

Thanks to several people who commented that college isn’t for everyone in an earlier posting. I had hoped to point out a connection between higher education and higher income, but that may not actually be the case. College can lead … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Parenting | 2 Comments

Culture, college and income

Posted on 02/08/2011 by carlynchatfield

Why don’t all parents make education a top priority?  Is it related to culture or economics? Asian Americans earn more income than non-Asians and more Asians Americans over the age of 25 have college degrees than any other race or … Continue reading →

Posted in Comm300, Cultures, Education, Houston, Parenting | 2 Comments

Teaching kids to test better starts early

Posted on 02/03/2011 by carlynchatfield

“What does ‘headless’ mean?” When I started answering toddler questions (usually while driving), I was not thinking about enabling our children to take tests in school. It was our children who made the connection years later when we were wondering … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultures, Education, Parenting | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Reading makes you smarter

Posted on 02/01/2011 by carlynchatfield

Did your parents read to you? If they did, they made you smarter. Really. Reading makes you smarter. You are probably smarter already, just by reading a few illuminating sentences in today’s blog posting. Modeling behavior is just as important … Continue reading →

Posted in Comm300, Cultures, Education, Houston, Parenting | 6 Comments