Barry Mernin

“Not every problem is a crisis, a plague, or an epidemic, and among the things that happen in the world is that people solve the problems confronting them.”
― Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

“remember passing our once-beautiful large synagogue, which had not been used for many years now, and seeing a woman leaning against the wall wailing, just crying out in agony. She looked to me like a branch dismembered from a tree, an arm without a body, a mind filled with grief, a bleeding heart, a walking tragedy. I hurried away, afraid of being swept up into her grief.”
― Alicia Appleman, Alicia: My Story

“Man is the lowest-cost, 150-pound, nonlinear, all-purpose computer system which can be mass-produced by unskilled labor.”
― Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

“She is the author of The Happy Kid Handbook: How to Raise Joyful Children in a Stressful World. She offers four strategies for helping your children pursue their passions.2 Know your child’s unique interests. Avoid plugging her into the local soccer program or Chinese class because that’s what all of your neighbors are doing. Watch instead (especially when she is playing) for signs of serious interests in particular pursuits. Think outside the box. Passion is not limited to playing fields and theatrical stages. It can exist in the kitchen, in the workshop, in the woods outside your back door, or in any number of other places. Parents are understandably anxious to offer enrichment to their children, but enrichment doesn’t automatically equate with large, organized programs. Nurture optimism. “Optimistic kids are more willing to take healthy risks, become better problem-solvers and experience positive relationships,” she notes. Since failure is a fact of life and your children will certainly have their share of setbacks, help them look optimistically at what they do. Avoid judgment. When you offer a negative judgment of your child’s expressed area of interest, you run the risk of stealing much of the joy from that pursuit. Not only is your child unique and different from every other child in the world, he is also unique from you. If you stomp on his potential passions or push him toward a pursuit he doesn’t particularly like, you’re likely to cause him a great deal of internal conflict.”
― Ken Robinson, You, Your Child, and School: Navigate Your Way to the Best Education