#21: Middling Expectations
I want to embroider this next confession on a throw pillow. I want to write it on people’s foreheads in sharpie. I want to hire a skywriter to plaster it across the sky. This is a lesson that so many people need to learn, and thank goodness for this teacher for putting it out there, even if they can’t say this to their students.
Look, it’s good that the way we talk to children has become really encouraging and positive in recent years. We want them to dream big and to believe that they can and should have good things in life. But sometimes, we lean so heavily into this “You’re special, and you deserve the whole world!” shtick that we’re just setting these kids up for disappointment when they find out that they are no more special and no more deserving than anyone else. Let’s give kids reasonable encouragement and reasonable expectations!