I didn’t try very hard in school. It’s not that the work was difficult. The trying was difficult. Effort didn’t come naturally, and my brain always seemed interested in anything except whatever was happening at the front of the classroom. My grades weren’t great (but not awful). To quote my mother when she met my future in-laws for the first time, my grades “weren’t stellar”. I’m still not sure why that needed to be part of the introduction.

But do you know what made all the difference?

READING.

I read constantly. Ferociously. Book after book after book. Mostly fiction, but plenty of nonfiction too… space, dinosaurs, deep time, the strange and ancient history of our planet. Reading didn’t necessarily teach me what to think. It taught me how to think. How to learn. How to form opinions. How to defend them. How to imagine. How to write. Everything that eventually shaped me was influenced heavily by books.

My real education came through READING.

I’m not suggesting your kid should coast through school. But I AM saying your kid should read. They should read books. Full books. Chapter books. Books without pictures. Books with pictures. Books that stretch the mind, spark curiosity, or even just make them laugh.
No harm can come to a child by reading. The harm comes from a child who never learns how.

Don’t let your kids think reading is boring. Don’t let your kids think reading is pointless. Put books in their hands and let them find the worlds waiting inside. Teach your kids to read and you’ll never have to worry whether they can think.

Addendum: Marrying the smartest girl in the class turns out to be an excellent long-term strategy, too.