Camilla Benbow, Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development writes in this week’s Tennessean that involved parents don’t necessarily hold back children as they become adults:
“When parents constantly intervene to prevent a child from dealing with difficulties and setbacks, they deny that child the opportunity to learn important lessons about personal effort and persistence…
“[But] the picture is not all bleak. With all the bad press given to helicopter parents, others have resolved to encourage their children to work out their own solutions to challenges they meet along the way.”
Her previous column also affirmed the value of involved parenting:
“My own experience taught me that parents should consider themselves advocates both to and for their children. We should make it clear to our children that we value education and that we expect them to put in the effort to be successful at it…
“Advocacy, however, is not the same as helicopter parenting. As an educator, I have seen too many instances in which a student’s personal development has been hurt by parents who refuse to let a child succeed or fail on his or her own. When it comes to learning the value of persistence, a setback can be the best teacher.”
Read more at The Tennessean: