Day: July 3, 2023

What might happen if I bite my grandmother in the butt? This, I imagine, is what my four-year-old son was pondering the afternoon my mother took over while I enjoyed a nourishing weekend away with friends. Grandma would not be happy, it turns out, but my son and his siblings would find it riotous. I learned about the bite later. Rather than spoil my rare weekend off, my mother sheepishly confessed to the incident only after I pressed her, and even then dismissed it as trivial.
My mother seemed to have understood intuitively the kind of wisdom dispensed by parenting experts. In his book, You and Your Adult Child: How to Grow Together in Challenging Times, psychology professor Laurence Steinberg writes, “being a good grandparent mainly involves making life easier for your child and their partner.” Slate parenting columnist and podcast host Jamilah Lemieux echoed that advice when she told me that the grandparents’ principal role is to stand by their kids. “Parents need to feel supported ..

When Kate Smith’s second grade class finished their virtual field trip to a local farm, her students chose how they wanted to share what they had learned. Some kids created postcards or a poster with crayons. Some wrote a letter about the trip and sent it to a family member. Others scripted commercials and shot a video to present to the class. Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an approach where teachers seek to make learning accessible to all students regardless of their backgrounds, abilities, or learning preferences, is at the root of Smith’s lessons. “You’re getting to know your kids — their abilities, their skill levels, what they struggle with, where they excel, their interests, all those kinds of things. And you’re designing [lessons] with kids in mind,” said the teacher, who works in Westminster, Maryland.
Developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), UDL provides a framework for educators to create inclusive learning environments. “It really is about how we..