One thing I keep coming back to is the difference between helping a child succeed and helping a child become more like everyone else. Those things aren't always the same. Of course I want kids to learn to communicate, work with other people, manage frustration, and do things that are hard. Those are important skills. But I don't want the price of learning those skills to be giving up the parts of themselves that make them curious, creative, or willing to question things. I think there's a way to help kids grow without making them feel like they need to become somebody else first. I'm interested in how we actually do that, not just how we talk about it. What does that look like in your house?

This week's rabbit hole: Find a person who was underestimated, dismissed, or considered difficult because they thought differently. It could be a scientist, an artist, an inventor, a writer, a historical figure, or somebody whose story you know personally. I'm less interested in the familiar "they were told they'd never succeed, and then they became famous" version of the story. I want to know what actually happened. What did this person notice that others missed? What made their ideas difficult for people to accept? Who supported them, if anyone? Bring back a name, a link, or something interesting you discovered. You don't have to do a whole research project. One genuinely interesting detail is enough.

Let's talk about the things our kids love so much that they forget to check the time. Maybe it's drawing, coding, animals, history, building things, reading, researching some incredibly specific topic, or explaining a complicated theory to you when you're just trying to make dinner. 😂 I'm interested in what happens when a kid gets to follow their own curiosity without immediately turning it into an assignment, a grade, or something they're expected to produce. What is your child fascinated by right now? And if you were that kid, what could you happily spend hours doing?

In this video, I talk about the kids that get labeled "difficult" in school and the long-term impact that can have on the kids in school. Have any of you ever experienced this?