From the article: Of all the challenges faced by college and high school students, few inspire as much angst, profanity, procrastination and caffeine consumption as the academic paper. The format - meant to force students to make a point, explain it, defend it, repeat it (whether in 20 pages or 5 paragraphs) - feels to many like an exercise in rigidity and boredom, like practicing piano scales in a minor key.
he asks them to choose three examples that help them tell their parents a deeper story: one that shows they have recognized both a personal strength and an area in which they are struggling. Most students, he says, have never thought about their learning in this way. Nor have most of their parents.
kids learn to advocate for themselves
“What do I do well?” and “How can I build on this?”