Live Bravely.

Art by E.W. Kemble in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” 1884. Credit: Getty Images

​At this year’s Convocation I spoke of the concept of the “healthy struggle,” that as parents we must allow our children not only to make mistakes but also to recover from mistakes of their own making. From an academic standpoint, healthy struggle leads to the development of a scholar who is not content with the status quo and who is always in search of a better way.  But most of all, I am referring to a social struggle; for without successful resolution of healthy social struggles, a child fails to develop people skills. In the terms of Daniel Goleman, a child who knows no struggle lacks emotional I.Q.  
 
I am a parent of two millennial children, and a self-admitted imperfect parent on even my best day, so I do not want to seem preachy in my first Crossties post of the year. I do, however, want to set forward a discussion point for us as a community this year. How can we as parents refrain from making our children’s lives “perfect” so that they can find the struggles to solve?

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