John's Articles

Mom of 7-Year-Old Cures ADD in One Day

Posted on 6/2/1995

THIS MOTHER TOOK A SHORTCUT TO CURE ATTENTION DEFICIT While in a Midwestern city a couple of weeks ago, giving a series of talks and workshops, I heard an interesting story from the mother of...

Sex Education in Schools

Posted on 11/11/1994

SEXUALITY COURSES MISSING KEY POINT In the midst of a get-together in 1980, several women cornered me and began telling me about their efforts to implement a sex-education curriculum in our...

2nd Grader Homework Issue

Posted on 10/7/1994

IN HELPING WITH HOMEWORK, THERE'S A FINE LINE TO WALK Q. For the last year we've been using the homework management system from your book on school performance problems to help our second-grade...

ADD Series - Part 1

Posted on 8/26/1994

ATTENTION DEFICIT HAS DEFINITE SYMPTOMS, BUT IS IT A DISEASE? "There he goes again. John Rosemond proves anew that when a psychologist becomes a full-time advice columnist, his advice becomes...

Allowances - Part 3

Posted on 8/19/1994

NEVER REWARD GOOD GRADES WITH MONEY Q. Should parents ever reward children with money for good grades? A. Not! School is for learning, not making money. When parents pay children for good...

Teacher Concerned About High Number of ADD Students

Posted on 7/15/1994

IS ATTENTION DISORDER FOR REAL? INSTEAD OF GENETICS, IT MAY BE UPBRINGING Q. As a teacher, I'm increasingly concerned about the number of children being identified as having attention...

Parents Decide Not to Retain 2nd Grader

Posted on 7/8/1994

REPEATING A GRADE: WHO REALLY BENEFITS? Q. Our daughter has attended the same private school since kindergarten. She's an average student, which is just fine with us. Last spring, her teacher...

6-Year-Old Wants to Wear Same Outfit Everyday to School

Posted on 6/10/1994

WHEN CHILD INSISTS ON SAME OUTFIT EVERY DAY, SHOULD MOM OBJECT? Q. My 6-year-old daughter has a favorite outfit - denim shorts and a T-shirt - that she wants to wear to school every day, and I...

Team-Building in Schools - Part 3

Posted on 4/15/1994

LET'S DROP THE FUN AND GAMES AND GET BACK TO BASICS IN EDUCATION My recent article on "team building'' in public schools generated a flurry of mail. In brief, I blasted away at "fun and...

Team-Building in Schools - Part 2

Posted on 3/4/1994

FUN IS NOT WHAT EDUCATION'S ABOUT Some readers may recall a column of several months back in which I turned my iconoclastic flamethrower on "team building'' in public schools. It's a concept...

6th Grader Having Problem with Teacher

Posted on 1/21/1994

WHO DO YOU SUPPORT IN KID-TEACHER CONFLICT? GO WITH AUTHORITY; BACK THE ADULT Q. My daughter is having what I can only call a "personality conflict'' with one of her sixth-grade teachers. I...

Team-Building in Schools - Part 1

Posted on 11/19/1993

LET'S HAVE TEACHERS TEACH, NOT BE STUDENTS' BUDDIES Q. Our school system, which has been "child-centered'' since the mid-1970s, recently switched to a team-teaching approach at the junior high...

Teacher Speaks Out About Why Kids Are Bored in School

Posted on 5/7/1993

A TEACHER SPEAKS OUT ABOUT THE SO-CALLED BORED CHILD "Would you please," she implored, "write a column about children who are supposedly bored in school?" "I'll sure think about it," I...

Impact of Self-Esteen on Education

Posted on 4/30/1993

THAT TEACHER MESSED WITH MY SELF-ESTEEM, AND I THANK HER Some 20 years ago, mental health professionals, who had by then appointed themselves guardians of the rights of children, successfully...

Parents Considering Retaining 2nd Grader

Posted on 4/9/1993

REPEATING A GRADE CAN HELP, IF PARENTS DO IT WITH CARE Q. Our second-grade daughter is reading considerably below grade level. She was recently tested and found to have a slightly above-average...

Delaying Entrance Into Kindergarten for Children with Summer Birthdays

Posted on 4/2/1993

Q. What do you think about delayed entrance into kindergarten for so- called "summer children?" This practice has caught on in our school system, and officials are now making the...

Gifted Programs

Posted on 2/19/1993

TEACHERS SHOULDN'T PUSH THE NOTION THAT GIFTED IS BETTER I know it's not manly, and that's probably why I didn't, but I felt like screaming. The other day, a mother told me, "My daughter's...

Teacher Needs to Give Homework That 2nd Grader is Capable of Doing without Parent Help

Posted on 12/11/1992

HOMEWORK SHOULD NOT REQUIRE PARENT'S HELP Q. Our son is in the second grade. His teacher has been giving homework assignments that require parent involvement. Immediately after the election,...

Interview: Part 1 - "Three R's" of Respect, Responsibility and Resourcefulness

Posted on 10/23/1992

START WITH THE 3 R'S TO HELP A CHILD SUCCEED This self-interview is actually based on recent conversations with journalists around the country. It is the first of four, maybe five parts....

Progressive Policies in School System

Posted on 9/18/1992

WHY SCHOOLS ARE TOO LENIENT, AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT Q. We have recently moved, and our children are now attending public school within a supposedly "progressive" system that is, in fact,...

Dyslexia Debate

Posted on 7/3/1992

UNPROVEN THEORIES ON DYSLEXIA ARE NO HELP, DESPITE WHAT OTHERS SAY A learning disabilities specialist in Long Beach, Calif., advises that I educate myself. A psychologist in Pennsylvania says...

8-Year-Old Diagnosed with Dyslexia

Posted on 6/26/1992

WHAT WE CALL DYSLEXIA MAY JUST BE A CHILD'S MATURITY LEVEL Q. Our 8-year-old son, a third-grader, was recently tested because of reading difficulties and found to be dyslexic. According to...

Parents Conerned That 6-Year-Old is Only Average in School

Posted on 6/19/1992

WHY TREAT AVERAGE' KID LIKE A PROBLEM CHILD? A couple recently told me they'd had their 6-year-old daughter tested because, although intelligent and socially mature, she had not been doing...

Teach Children to Respect Adults Regardless if You Like Them

Posted on 6/12/1992

DON'T BE AFRAID TO TEACH CHILDREN TO RESPECT ADULTS I don't often invite someone else to co-write this column, but every now and then a letter comes across my desk that is so pertinent, so...

Community Participation in Rearing of Children

Posted on 6/5/1992

ONCE UPON A TIME, CHILDREN FELT BAD, NOT PARENTS Once upon a time, a generation or so ago, if a child misbehaved in school the school disciplined the child, confident the child's parents would...

Facts of Retention

Posted on 4/24/1992

FLUNKED CHILD CAN SUCCEED, IF TREATED RIGHT Spring, 1991: Within a large Midwestern school system, the coordinator of staff development circulates a memo beseeching administrators not to...

3rd Grader Homework Issue

Posted on 2/28/1992

IF CHILD BENDS YOUR RULES AND STILL GETS HOMEWORK DONE, APPLAUD HIS INGENUITY Q. Our son, Turner, is now in the third grade. Late last school year, after many problems involving homework, we...

Opposed to Pulling Learning-Disabled Children out of Regular Classroom

Posted on 2/21/1992

PULLING SLOW KIDS OUT OF CLASS FOR EXTRA HELP? BETTER NOT Q. You seem opposed to serving the special needs of learning disabled children during school hours. If I read you correctly, you...

American Parents, not Schools, are Falling Down on the Job

Posted on 12/20/1991

ONE MORE TIME: DON'T BLAME SCHOOLS; BLAME FAMILIES "Our public schools are failing the American child!" she said, she being one of a number of "experts" I've heard make similar pronouncements...

Mom Worries About 3rd Grader's Self-Esteem After Not Qualifing for Program

Posted on 10/4/1991

HER CHILD DIDN'T GET IN GIFTED' CLASS Late last month, during a break in a workshop I was conducting, a teacher of "gifted and talented" students asked how she should deal with the mother of...

6-Year-Old Has Fear of School

Posted on 9/20/1991

WHAT CAUSES 6-YEAR-OLD'S FEAR OF SCHOOL? Q. Our 6-year-old daughter has developed a fear of going to school. Last year, with the exception of one or two teary mornings the first week, she...

Today's Kids in Contrast to Kids 50 Years Ago

Posted on 8/23/1991

TODAY'S KIDS WANT TO BE ENTERTAINED In the course of making presentations to parent and professional groups, I talk with a good number of teachers, mostly about their experiences with and...

Spanking in Schools

Posted on 5/5/1991

RESTORE SPANKING IN SCHOOLS? THAT DOESN'T HIT THE MARK The most recent of signs that we are living in the Age of Anti-Enlightenment: The mayor of Washington wants to restore corporal...

The ABCs of Effective Homework Management

Posted on 3/12/1991

Are you ready to extricate yourself from the never-ending, self-defeating, viciously circular trap of participating in your child's homework? Are you you ready to get out of the homework...

4th Grader's Refusal to Complete Schoolwork

Posted on 2/10/1991

IF IT'S NOT ASSIGNED, HE WON'T DO IT Q. My son's fourth-grade teacher recently gave the class a cumulative spelling test covering an entire four-week unit. At one point during the test, she...

9-Year-Old with Learning Disability Homework Issue

Posted on 12/23/1990

LEARNING-DISABLED NEED A CAN-DO' APPROACH Q. I just finished reading your latest book, "Ending the Homework Hassle," and I'm disappointed. Your plan for getting children to be responsible...

Teachers Needing Cooperation from Parents

Posted on 11/18/1990

TEACHERS: DON'T ANALYZE - JUST ACT It never fails. Every time I do an in-service workshop for teachers, one will ask, "What can we do to help children with problems if their parents won't...

10-Year-Old Cursing at School

Posted on 11/4/1990

SOME TEACHERS CAN'T TAKE CRITICISM Several weeks ago, I ran a letter from the mother of a 10-year-old boy whose teacher had punished him for cursing. In my estimation, the snowball been set...

10-Year-Old Overreacts at School

Posted on 9/30/1990

THIS WAS THE TEACHER'S FAULT, BUT DON'T SAY THAT TO A CHILD Q: We recently had a problem with our 10-year-old son, Elmer, and we don't know how we should handle it. He told a friend at school...

Retaining Children

Posted on 6/10/1990

HOLDING CHILD BACK IN SCHOOL CAN WORK OUT OK Q: In previous columns, you've come out in favor of retaining children who are behind in school. Last week, I read a news release concerning a...

Delaying Kindergarten for Summer Birthday Children

Posted on 3/25/1990

DELAYING KINDERGARTEN FOR LATE-BIRTHDAY CHILDREN IS COMMON Q. Most of the psychologists and pediatricians in our community are advising parents of children who turn 5 after June 1 to delay by...

8-Year-Old Bothering Other Children at School

Posted on 2/11/1990

LET CHILD SOLVE PROBLEM SOMETIMES A good general chooses his battles carefully, knows that retreat can be strategic, and understands that it is sometimes necessary to lose the battle to win...

8-Year-Old Homework Issue

Posted on 1/14/1990

YOU CAN'T PREVENT CHILD'S FAILURE' ALL HER LIFE Q. I read your recent series on managing homework with great interest because my 8-year-old, who's now in the third grade, has required my help...

Children with no Experience with Homework

Posted on 11/26/1989

HOMEWORK NOVICES MAY NEED EXTRA HELP INITIALLY Q. As a second-grade teacher in San Diego, I was glad to see you address the issue of homework in your recent three-part series. Although my...

7 Hidden Values of Homework

Posted on 9/10/1989

HERE ARE THE 7 WONDERS OF THE HOMEWORK WORLD What makes homework important enough to warrant three consecutive columns? Homework is important for obvious reasons and for reasons that are not...

The ABCs of Staying out of Homework

Posted on 9/3/1989

In last week's column, I said that for a child to benefit from homework, the child must have full "ownership" of the responsibility. Parents should help when help is truly needed, but must be...

Parents Should Not Participate in Homework

Posted on 8/27/1989

PARENTS, KEEP YOUR DISTANCE FROM HOMEWORK With a new school year upon us, I thought it might be appropriate to take up the question "How much help with homework should parents give to...

Retention Issue

Posted on 7/16/1989

VIEWS MIXED ON RETENTION If my mail is any indication, "to retain or not to retain" a must be the hottest topic in education these days. Educators - mostly teachers and principals - from...

5-Year-Old Readiness Test for Kindergarten

Posted on 6/18/1989

5-YEAR-OLDS ARE TOO YOUNG FOR MOST READINIESS TESTING Q. We recently applied for our son, 5, to attend kindergarten at a private elementary school in our community. After giving him a...

Retention Issue

Posted on 4/30/1989

WISDOM OF HOLDING STUDENTS BACK IS SUBJECT TO DEBATE In a past column on school performance problems, I said that retention, in combination with other interventions, can often be helpful,...

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