Let me tell you the worst message there is to receive, whether in business or personal life. It’s this:

“Please call me.”

I’m not saying that in the post-millennial, “Oh I’m such an introvert that I can’t bear to interact with a human and I prefer receiving text messages,” sense. No, I absolutely love the phone, and prefer it as a mode of communication in these not-in-person times.

The problem is the uncertainty. “Please call me” could signal anything from “I am about to fire you” to “I can’t decide between these two names for my folk-punk band and I need to hash it out with someone I trust.”

Read More

One afternoon in December of 2012, I was leading my middle school students through a discussion of an article in the New York Times. I had the image from my laptop projected onto the wall of the classroom.

I don’t remember what the article was, but the themes were age-appropriate and we were slowly working through it to get a handle on the language and structure.

As we finished up, I refreshed the home page of the Times. And that’s when I learned, along with a roomful of adolescents, that a large number of children had been killed in a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

Read More

Those closest to me know that I learn through talking.

It’s something I have long been self-conscious about. It’s not the narcissism of thinking that everyone needs to hear what I have to say — I just need to say it. I need to make assertions and see how they sound — see how they land. I have to release ideas into the open, airing them out and exposing them to the light.

Read More

I am a regular reader of an advice column I don’t like very much.

Why? Well, I like advice columns in general. I like how they wake up the problem-solving part of my brain and the empathic part at the same time.

The problem is that I’m not a big fan of the advice given by the writer.

Read More

I showed up to Jalil’s house as usual for our tutoring session.

Right away, I could see that he was in a dark place — for an eight-year-old. The cheeky smile I always see when I walk in was replaced by a scowl. No eye contact. “He’s in a mood,” his mom said.

I knew we had a lot to do — reading, science, writing. We made it to the room where our lessons take place, but once we got there, Jalil remained sullen, just rolling a ball around.

Read More