Nelligan describes seizing alternatives to strengthen elementary ideas. Like me, he’s an enormous believer in timeliness—and that something apart from a respect for punctuality suggests to others that your time is extra helpful than theirs. (My children have heard me give this little homily many occasions. Possibly that’s why Nelligan’s tackle this gave me a chuckle.) He tells of a time a household confirmed up disruptively late to a college occasion. Afterward, the household meandered over to him, with the daddy explaining, “We have been late getting right here as a result of we’re all the time so rattling busy.” Nelligan’s response, in entrance of his sons? “Yeah, I hear you. Good factor the Nelligans are by no means busy.”
There are smart tricks to constructing a child’s self-assurance and sense of competence. When his boys have been little, Nelligan would inform them: “You guys are small so if you happen to get misplaced someplace in a bunch of individuals, search for that man with a stripe operating down their pants. That’s a policeman or a solider and so they’ll aid you out.” When his five-year-old received misplaced at a mall, he stared at legs till he discovered a mall safety officer.
The amount is hit-or-miss. Some anecdotes fall flat. Nevertheless it’s a fascinating, provocative contribution. As Nelligan places it, he wrote this guide “with an edge as a result of after 20 years in Mother or father World, I know that parenting on this more and more erratic and questionable tradition calls for laborious and direct truths, not soft-pedalled equivocation.”
That’s a fairly truthful summation of each the guide and the necessity for an old-school method to schooling.
Wishing all of you a merry Christmas, a contented Chanukah, and a terrific 2025.
