Suburban Reviews

In a world of large classes, school uniforms, and those every-teacher-despises-them standardized tests, the concept of individuality in the classroom is almost a thing of the past. The educational system has become much like an assembly line of ‘get them through and move them out’ on the largest of scales. Not surprising then that Jennifer Fox’s new book “Your Child’s Strengths: Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them” is being hailed as ‘groundbreaking’ and ‘completely out of the box’. With her approach of focusing less on fixing the problems, and more on using the positive traits to work around them, she encourages parents and teachers to approach their children in a way that flies in the face of everything the current system considers ‘normal’. The Parent Bloggers Network encouraged us to check out this groundbreaking new book, and I have to say it is completely changing the way I look at kids and the educational system in general.

It’s almost funny that as I sit here writing this review, my 9 year old daughter is at school taking a test that will be counted as 20% of her final grade. This is not something the teacher cooked up, but the well-intentioned-failure called No Child Left Behind. Thanks to this reform, schools now spend a third of the school year teaching a test with the weight of the world riding on it. With this kind of mounting pressure on everyone from the principals to the students, its no wonder teachers are forced to pack as much information as possible into as little time as necessary, with little time left to work one on one with their kids. In situations like this, ‘problem children’ really stand out, whether the issues are behavioral or with their learning abilities. These kids take time away from the classroom at large, and its almost understandable the focus then goes to getting these children back in line with the norm, whatever that takes. Unfortunately the ‘what it takes’ puts so much focus on what’s wrong that almost no emphasis is put on what’s right, and the end result can be disastrous for a child’s self esteem and self confidence.

Ms. Fox feels the answer to this is to take a completely different approach, and get to know the child’s strengths in ways that very few of us really do. Through different questionnaires and activities, in addition to general observation, answers can be gotten from the kids that help you understand how they think and how they learn, enabling you to figure out the best way to teach them. I could list a few random examples from her book, but I’d feel almost remiss if I didn’t instead mention a good friend of mine who is living this very idea. Heather has a 7 year old son who is absolutely brilliant, but behaviorally is not like other kids his age. His teacher this year started out by doing everything possible to point out to my friend how ‘wrong’ and how ‘different’ her son was, to the point of making an example of everything he does, including his distaste for fiction books. Apparently at age 7, every child loves fiction, therefor something must be wrong with him. My friend, instead of trying to push these imaginary tales on him in an effort to make him conform, simply asked him why he disliked them. His reply? He doesn’t learn anything from them. Truly, how can you argue that? Instead of possibly damaging his love of reading (non-fiction), she encourages him to develop his imagination in other ways, such as the incredible stories he loves making up. My friend as far as I know has not read this book yet, but she is a living example of it’s principles, and an example to me of truly knowing your child.

This book is truly a inspiration, and one every parent and teacher should read. With the current state of the educational system, parents and teachers are more than ever having to make schooling a partnership venture. I think this book is a fabulous way for both sides to help kids reach their fullest potential while not losing their sense of self to the establishment as we know it today.

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