At Novato Chess Club, we build resilience in children by letting them solve their problems. Over the course of the year, a year of reinforcing to parents, how parents can get in the way of developing their children by using their their perceived status, to justify their children are better than other children. It is through failure we learn how to get up and preserve. Through humility and sacrifice we learn to appreciate all the gifts we have received.
Not every 4.0 student is good at chess, neither is any congressman or Wall Street banker or school teacher for that matter it's a game that acquires a certain a bit of talent and skill and for those that perceive themselves to be better than others it's a way of showing and teaching that learning is a process and success is a process.
Children in the USA are not prepared to compete with the immigrants that are coming across that border thirsting for knowledge and opportunity regardless of your political or socioeconomic status or what you believe the essence of the new America will be can you be resilient? Are you resilient? Can you learn to be resilient?
So let your children compete, do not have them out there thinking they're better than they are; so by the time they get the college degree, they can feel they earned it because of hard work effort and determination.
A year in review: Thank you Marin Catholic High School
It has been an amazing year for Novato Chess Club, as we acknowledge Marin Catholic students in San Rafael.
By the end of this academic year 2024, we have 32 students signed up and committed to 50 hours of community service work by September 2026.
These young freshmen have made a commitment to be help young people learn about patience, sacrifice, humility and good decision making.
All the human values that build up emotional stability.
We are grateful for the work of Andrea Jaeger and Mark Jaeger, and Father Andrew Ginter of the campus ministry department for getting the word out to the students.
They believe getting your children out there in the world builds resiliency. It teaches how to get up when you fall and persevere to the next goal.
So NCC is grateful and next year we look forward to starting again and developing this game called chess at Saint Isabella Parish and we are grateful for our good friend Stanley Ho '27, who will be beginning a program at Hamilton Middle School in Novato this fall September 2024. He cannot wait to get his driver's license and get out there working, congratulations young man.
From the moment newborns are placed in our arms, we love them unconditionally and as they grow, we support them as they learn to sit, crawl, and walk; we guide them as they make friends; we teach them how to write their names; and provide comfort after every bump and bruise. Our list is full of ways to nurture, support, teach, and provide for our children. But, although it may feel uncomfortable to some, we also need to provide opportunities for learning that come from making mistakes. In fact, letting children learn from their mistakes helps build resilience and is essential to raising a confident, capable, happy, and successful adult.
When children are given the opportunity to struggle and sometimes fail, you allow them to develop important social and emotional skills. Of course, you shouldn't risk their safety or not respond when what is needed most is reassurance. However, your role should be to support and guide, rather than do for them what they need to learn to do for themselves. It is often during times when things aren't working out or pose a challenge that children have the opportunity to develop coping and resilience skills. Coping skills are like muscles; we don't know how strong they truly are until we need to use them.
Consider the learning that occurs when a child and a friend have an argument. Even though it is unpleasant, children learn to reflect on their own actions, manage their emotions, take another's perspective, solve problems, and compromise. If parents swoop in to fix those problems, children miss out on that critical skill-building that results from learning from mistakes or failure. Further, children that don't have opportunities to fail or struggle and recover have lower self-confidence and a less developed self-concept. They tend to be more fearful of failure and less willing to try new things because they don't know how they will handle it.
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