3 Elements of a Good Decision

 “People respond well to those who are sure of what they want”

- Anna Wintour

 There’s a train of thought that all things in life are neutral until meaning is attached to them. That’s why one person’s tragedy is another person’s opportunity. It’s entirely the same with making decisions. Outcomes - or the fruits - of a decision don’t have any inherent meaning until the people attached to the decision apply it. That’s why there’s more to consider when making a decision than what might seem obvious.

Making good decisions takes intention. The bigger the stakes attached to the decision, the more thought goes into making it. It might not take much thought to eat breakfast but choosing what to eat runs the decision through a gauntlet of sorts.

Decision to be made: What to eat for breakfast

Considerations: Time allotted to eat, health components of the meal,...

Encouraging Kids to Make Their Own Decisions

 One of the reasons adults resist making decisions is their lack of experience. Kids who grew up under hovering helicopter parents didn’t have the same opportunities to make decisions that empowered kiddos did. Kids with parents who structured every second of their kids’ day may not have developed the problem-solving, critical thinking, and negotiating skills that free-range kids learned...yet as educators, we can encourage kids to make their own decisions.

 Some may argue that the world isn’t what it used to be, and kids can’t experience the freedoms that their feral latch-key parents had. Long gone are the days of going out to play in the neighborhood and not coming home until dark to parents who relied on Swanson’s tv dinners and sitcoms to fill up the hours prior to bedtime. There’s a truth that the world is no longer as safe for kids to explore.

 Children require a higher level of...