The author reviewed his son’s papers one night

As I reviewed my son’s papers from school one night last week, I came across one paper with a failing grade. I almost came up out of my chair. I started to yell his name when I suddenly remembered he was in bed asleep. It didn’t matter that this was only his second year of school. At the moment I saw his academic career in ruins. I was angry. But I put the paper aside and turned to the next one. It had some pencil scribblings and at the top of the page was written, "My Dad". It was a poem about me. His poem included the time I had to leave work to take him to the doctor because he had broken his finger. I had forgotten about that. He talked about how I wrestled with him in the evenings. And he talked about a few other things he liked that I did. That paper with the failing grade was suddenly not nearly as important as it had been just a few minutes earlier. I didn’t know if he planted the poem next to the failing grade in order to soften the blow, but it worked. In stead of a severe lecture, I talked to him about the poem as well as the failed assignment. It began to make sense to me that I could include praise along with constructive criticism. I got the idea from a poem I read.