In his guest post on Michael Hyatt’s blog, John G. Miller, author of QBQ! The Question Behind the Question makes some very strong statements about the responsibility of parenting, that some may disagree with or even be offered by, but that we all need to hear.
These are “no excuses” parents. They don’t blame the famous for the “poor example that they set” and would never employ the grand parental excuse: “My child didn’t turn out as I’d hoped, because he got in with the wrong crowd.”
Leadership at home is captured in this statement: My child is a product of my parenting. Any other view of parenting is irresponsible folly. Excuse-making is never part of a leader’s world.
Miller has caused me to wonder if I am modeling, false entitlement, procrastination, finger pointing or any other poor example for my boys and those around me. While Miller does not acknowledge that there are some aspects to child rearing that we cannot influence through our environment we may need to temper his message and recognize that there are a few instances when even the right modeling won’t make the difference. Even though we should acknowledge that there is a balance of nature and nurture that contribute the development of our children I warn anyone from dismissing Miller’s argument because of a few exceptions. Perhaps he covers those exceptions in his book.
The Encyclopedia is offering free access to their digital content for next week. It will be interesting to see if they can compete with Wikipedia. I know I won’t be paying for access to their resources. Will anyone else be willing to pay?
Tablet Ownership Triples Among College Students – Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education via kwout
A few highlights:
1/4 of college students surveyed have a tablet (3 times increase over last year’s survey)
Sixty-three percent of college students believe tablets will replace textbooks in the next five years (15 percent increase over last year’s survey.
More than a third said they intended to buy a tablet sometime in the next six months.
Nearly six in 10 students preferred digital books when reading for class, compared with one-third who said they preferred printed textbooks (a reversal from other surveys)
One must ask: What is academia doing to prepare for this?
