Something to Think About

Last night one of my favorite people in Los Angeles came over for dinner. Her name is Anna and she is a reader, an intellectual, an artist, a teacher and a mama. She is also a fantastic cook. I had her over to drink wine and make Neapolitan pizza. She will be teaching art to the children at Theo's new charter school. She has talked a lot to our principal, Kristin Elson. Kristin is one-of-a-kind. She has taught teaching at community college, started a Montessori charter school in Victorville, for no pay, done educational research for the Rand Corporation, written grants, published academic articles, and taught in both private and public schools. Now she will run our charter school. One of the things she said to Anna when she was interviewing her was: parents define how they raise their children more by what they DON'T allow them to do, than what they do. In other words, we decide our children can't watch TV, can't see certain movies, can't eat sugar, shouldn't eat transfats, shouldn't drink from plastic bottles, etc. All of these things are so important. I try to do them, too. And yet, how much harder it is to try to come up with a positive overarching philosophy for how you want to raise your child. How much harder to define what you want them to stand for, what you want them to believe, what you want them to shoot for, dream about, and achieve. How much bolder you need to be to define your vision, and stick to it. What is my vision? I need to figure that out...