Dr. B: Who was your favorite teacher in high school?
Parent: Oh that’s easy. Mr. Watson.
Dr. B: What did you like about Mr. Watson?
Parent: He would tell us stories about when he was a minor league ball player and some of the famous players he met along the way.
Dr. B: Who was the best teacher you had?
Parent: That would have to be Mrs. Gaines.
Dr. B: So your favorite teacher was not the same as your best teacher?
Parent: Are you kidding? Mrs. Gaines was all business.
Dr. B: So what made her your best teacher?
Parent: She knew what concepts we needed to learn and she stayed focused on them.
Dr. B: What do you mean?
Parent: We learned the basis for each Constitutional Amendment, why it was needed, and how it applied in our lives.
Dr. B: So, you had a real working understanding of the Constitution? Quite a difference in those two teachers?
Parent: Hey. What’s this got to do with parenting? Am I supposed to have a lesson plan for my kids? And what about spontaneity?
Dr. B: Mrs. Gaines knew what you needed to master. I’ll bet she could spontaneously field your questions and still get you where you needed to go.
Parent: She was before Social Media, but I can just hear her asking our kids whether they had a legal right to say or show anything they wanted on Twitter or Instagram.
Dr. B: If you know where your kids need to go developmentally, you can be as spontaneous as you want to be.
Parent: Give me an example.
Dr. B: Well, instead of falling asleep at night in front of the television, bedtime can be a time for reading stories, making up stories or talking about the day, wherever your child wants to take you.
Parent: So, what are they mastering at bedtime?
Dr. B: If you ask your child to make up a story, you are promoting development in the areas of communication, creativity, logical thinking, emotion competence, …
Parent: Ok, ok. I get the idea.
