TED Talk Tuesday #214: What makes for successful parenting?

TED continues to spread ideas and help us all be better, critical thinkers. Watching, listening and talking about TED Talks is a popular pastime for many in the CN&CO community. We visit TED.com regularly to clear our heads, have a laugh, learn or get inspired. TED Talks open our minds, spark new ways of thinking and can lead to some very interesting conversations and business opportunities.

Each week (OK, well, most weeks!) we pick a favourite and publish it on a Tuesday, because we like how “TED Talk Tuesday” sounds. It’s also a way that the CN&CO team play their part in spreading ideas and helping to make the world a better place. This week’s talk was chosen by Carel.

I have long held the view that giving and getting love & support makes for amazing humans and a productive, thriving society. Parents loving children, kids loving themselves, all of us loving our neighbours and supporting the difference around us – that’s what builds prosperity and success.

Schools and parents, especially, have a major role to play in providing thsi love – from a young age.

Being extremely fortunate to have had unconditional love and support as a child from both, and having seen first-hand in my role as the former Chair of St Stithians College Council how phenomenal teachers continue to be, I thought sharing this talk would be useful.

And if you want even more inspiration and good thoughts on what makes education great and parenting succesful, check out the Saints Online School – a groundbreaking initiative and one I continue to watch and support with interest.

But first this week’s TED Talk: “By loading kids with high expectations and micromanaging their lives at every turn, parents aren’t actually helping.” At least, that’s how Julie Lythcott-Haims sees it. With passion and wry humour, the former Dean of Freshmen at Stanford makes the case for parents to stop defining their children’s success via grades and test scores. “Instead,” she says, “they should focus on providing the oldest idea of all: unconditional love. “