Learning How to Write: An Opportunity for Kids
The word “opportunity” has been on my mind this past month.
At the beginning of March, when a parent was enrolling her daughter in writing classes with me, she referred to them as a "new opportunity" for her daughter. I thought those words were well chosen and thought provoking. Learning how to write properly and at a young age is an opportunity. You have provided your children with that same opportunity, and what they choose to do with it is up to them.
A week into reflecting on opportunities, I was fortuitous to be able to attend my son's first high school baseball game. During that game, I did a lot of observing and, in turn, thinking and left the game further contemplating opportunities.
All 21 players on my son's freshman baseball team were given an opportunity by their coaches when they made the team; that opportunity, though, will be treated differently by each of the players. Some will take it for granted: they will fulfill minimal requirements and occasionally cut corners during practices and lose potential playing time in games as a result. Other players will value it: they will consistently work hard to develop their baseball skills, at times going above and beyond and doing more than what is expected of them by their coaches, and will most likely be rewarded with one of the coveted nine defensive positions on the baseball field during a game.
What your children choose to do with the writing opportunity you have given them obviously will not determine whether they earn playing time during a high school baseball game, but it will determine where the opportunity takes them in life.
So, hopefully, they don't take it for granted. And hopefully, as they enter the business world, and their writing becomes more and more visible to the people around them, they will thank you for the opportunity that you wrapped up and handed to them as a gift when they were too young to fully appreciate its value.
Founder & Owner of ★ W O R D S