“The trick with controlling the behavior of unruly children is empowering them to make choices…” he tells me, while I mentally/frantically jotted down his advice in my compendium of awesome parenting tricks that I sorta have/don’t have. “…and you control both of those choices.” He continues. “Both outcomes are perfectly fine for the adult, but the child will feel like they just stuck it to the authority figure (ie, you).” Masterfully spoken from a master educator like Jeong Kyu; the future of NYC’s children was certainly safe in his hands. I marveled at the absolute genius of this whole concept, and wondered why I hadn’t thought of this earlier. The fact that this could possibly work for adults was a wonderful bonus.
“So basically…” I asked, while looking at the ominous looking clouds overhead. “(A) We can wrap up this engagement session in the next 15 minutes before it starts pouring, and share some delicious pho with yours truly OR (B) we can keep shooting for the next hour or so, and then share some delicious pho with yours truly.”
“Yeup, pretty much.” They both laughed.
