BJJ Life Lessons for Kids: Delayed vs. Instant Gratification
At my BJJ school, there are plenty of lessons for kids that apply not just to martial arts but life in general. One important life lesson is about instant vs. delayed gratification.
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Should You Talk to Kids About Politics?
I find it funny that even the kids in my children’s BJJ class discuss politics, so every time my kids come back they announce to me whose parents are voting for whom! But really, it shows how heated things have become before this upcoming election. Which brings up a good point: should parents discuss politics with kids?
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The COVID-19 Conspiracy Myth
In my Facebook news feed, I see a lot of conspiracy theories claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic was centrally planned in order to take control over our lives, health, rights and freedom. First of all, it’s nearly impossible for a single entity to plan and execute something like this at such a global scale. Thankfully, the world remains a pretty decentralized place. More importantly, taking control over our lives, health, rights and freedom has been going on for decades under our very noses, and most of us just didn’t see it. The COVID-19 pandemic happens to be only an opportunity to accelerate the process.
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The Myth of the Essential Business
When our government arbitrarily declared most businesses “non-essential” and shut them down as part of the COVID-19 lockdown policy, it bothered me a lot. If you saw “The Little Prince” animated movie, you will understand why. In that movie, success was defined as being “essential” — if you’re not essential, you aren’t contributing to adult society. In our case, too, the government has declared that if you are not a first responder, grocery store worker, or another professional whose job is necessary to people’s survival, you aren’t needed and can be shut down. And as it appears on social media, many of the general public agree with that.
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Telling Kids to “Listen to the Teacher” Can Backfire
Yesterday I discovered that my 6 year old daughter believes everything her martial arts coach says. I took her to her training session and saw how she and other little kids sat around listening to the coach intently, taking in everything he was saying. Literally everything. When we drove home and talked, I learned something revealing.
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Are Finnish Schools Really Successful?
Finnish schools… I have heard so much praise about them. Experts claim that Americans should copy the Finnish educational model. Should we really?
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The Victory of the Stubborn Minority
It’s now the second day of Hanukkah. We light only two candles out of eight. There’s still more darkness than light. But each day, another candle is added, and soon the lit candles are not a minority anymore. By the time the holiday is over, all the candles are lit.
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On Being Different
We do many things differently from other people. We are so different from almost anyone we know that we don’t identify ourselves as belonging to a single defined social group or a school of thought.
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Trust the Experts or the Internet?
As a parent and as a business owner, I interact with many professionals from a variety of fields, and I often hear them complain that online information sharing is threatening their professional credibility. For example, many doctors accuse their internet-savvy patients of “letting Google be their doctor” when their patients doubt the doctor’s advice or want to supplement it with online research. Other experts such as scientists and teachers also get offended when they encounter skepticism coming from the average people who are supposed to bow to the professional authority and take the expert’s word as a gospel.
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Our Issues with the Jewish Community
We are Jewish, we teach Jewish identity and values to our children, and we observe some of the Jewish laws and traditions in our home. Yet we don’t interact much with the Jewish community.
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