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I have been thinking about kids this week… A LOT! I finally got to go back into the schools and work with some kindergarteners, first, and second graders. And it was AWESOME! There little faces are so cute and they are just funny! REALLY, REALLY FUNNY! But I also thought a lot about resilience… You hear this word in the schools constantly and how we need to teach our kids “resilience” and “perseverance”. If our kids can persevere through life’s challenges, they will be resilient…

This is wrong! Backwards, actually.

Our kids need to know they are resilient BEFORE they can persevere!

These are my thoughts. Resilience is simply the self-knowledge that no matter what situation you face in this life, it WILL NOT kill you. SOMEHOW you are going to survive. If you have this knowledge and this belief in yourself, YOU ARE RESILIENT! I do not know where this thought came from exactly, but I think it is true. If you are resilient, then one begins to develop perseverance as you begin to figure out how to successfully overcome problems and obstacles in this life.

For me, in working with young children, to whom I wish to give the world, I think the importance of this is: resilience and perseverance CAN be taught (to an extent), but they MUST be tried. In order for our kids to succeed, they MUST be willing to try, and they MUST be willing AND allowed to fail.

These are just my original thoughts on this subject. There may or may not be more to come…