A child upon whom there are low or no expectations is a rudderless ship. She casts about her life with no sense of purpose or direction. If his parents don’t help him navigate, he may accomplish little or find someone else to give his life direction. Many times, that someone else might be a peer or gang member who won’t have your child’s best interest at heart.

Our job as parents and teachers is to set high expectations for our children so they can succeed in life. How do we set high goals for our children? I found that telling my teenagers anything directly was usually met with resistance and excuses about why they did not need to do it. Then, I remembered that my parents never said things like, “You will go to college!” Instead their expectations were implied.

My mother always spoke of how college was the best time in her life. My father said, “You and your sister argue so much, you should be lawyers.” But the most important message always was to do our best. And that was communicated by the way they took the time to give us direction.