How Has Your Teacher/school Supported Your 'Strong Willed Child'?

Our now 16 yr old daughter has always been very strong willed. It is a trait that we felt should not be squelched but redirected so it would benefit her the most. It is certainly not a negative trait.

She spent 6+ yrs training in martial arts and achieved her black belt in 2006. This helped her tremendously.

She is currently a co captain of the cheer squad in high schoool, 4 honors/AP classes and plays violin. She is very driven to to well and she puts her best effort into everything she touches.

The teachers along the way have recognized this trait and they have always encouraged her and encouraged us as parents to never hold her back from going for whatever it is she is striving for.

We are blessed that everything has turned out so well as of now. She is heading to her Jr yr in high school next year, already visiting colleges and and looking beyond the norm as far as her goals.

Hang in there!!

Is your child also very intelligent, excelling in many areas? Again, not knowing the age, has s/he been tested for any Gifted and Talented Programs? "strong willed" turned into "bossy" for my daughter, and as I googled for help under those terms, I learned a lot about GT, and have since met with her teacher, the GT teacher, the counselor and soon the speech pathologist (they seem to be the ones that work with social skills). We have encountered a lot of friend-loss issues, so the teachers in our school have been fairly helpful in this arena, but you have to be the champion every single year as a change of teachers means a new set of dynamics every year.

Congrats to T.F. - I hope so much to have that success as she matures.

I found the public schools didn't have the resources because of large classrooms. The Fairhill School is where we ended up. It wasn't perfect there either, but made a huge difference for our sons success and self-esteem.

You don't mention your child's age ..... that would help w/people giving advice.

They didn't support at our first preschool - so we switched schools and what I have found is it hasn't been so much specific things the new school has done, but rather a much better attitude/ understanding all around that there are children of different temperaments. They teach to the child - not the child to the class. Not sure how old your child is and if interviewing and changing schools is even an option.