“Instead of focusing on making your child’s life easier, 

help them recognize they are capable of handling hard things.”

-Dr. Siggie

 

Saturday (March 14) late afternoon, I was sitting with some other directors as the CEESA Conference was winding down. We were talking about highlights of the Conference, and a director asked me if I was surprised. I replied that I was not surprised, it was what I expected. The director was referring to how well our AAS students had done in emceeing and keynote speaking at the CEESA Conference. 

The 2026 CEESA Conference, hosted by AAS, was the first time in CEESA history that students had emceed and/or keynoted. While there was a bit of trepidation amongst some of the conference organizers about having students involved in the biggest moments of the conference, I was confident that the students would shine. They did that and more. 

From the Conference’s opening speaker, an AAS grade 5 student, through the three AAS student keynote speakers, which was all held together by the two AAS emcees, our students were the highlight of the full conference speeches (with an audience of 350 teachers and other educators). 

Two of the breakout sessions also featured four students from AAS and students from a few other CEESA schools, and again the students aced it. And again, I wasn’t surprised.

Why wasn’t I surprised? Why did I expect it? Because kids can do so much more than what adults typically assume they can do. As adults (parents, educators, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc), it is our job to teach our children how to do things. We teach them how to read, write, arithmetic; how to ride a bike and get back on the bike when they fall; how to navigate sticky social situations, and much more. Those are all essential things to do for our kids. And, we also must give them space to try big things: big things like speaking to a room of 350 teachers, principals, and directors or leading conference breakout sessions for some of those same teachers, principals, and directors. What we find over and over again is that not only can students succeed when we give them “big thing” opportunities, but they usually surpass expectations. When the opportunity doesn’t go as they hoped for, they still learn a lot, gain resilience and confidence. 

Many “big thing” opportunities are obvious to everyone (e.g. being in the spotlight for a keynote speech, performing arts, etc), but most big thing opportunities happen quietly day to day in the classroom or elsewhere at school. (Of course, they happen at home and in the community as well). They happen when we give our students the chance to try something we are not sure they are ready for, or more importantly, that they are not certain they are ready for. They happen when we get out of their way, and let them take a risk. (Obviously, there are many risks that we don’t want our children to take, but I’m not referring to those.) We want our students to take risks, to push themselves and try something that they are worried they might fail at. The reality is that even if they feel that they failed, they haven’t. They’ve learned and grown through a challenging experience. But, most of the time they shine more brightly than anyone expected…just as our students did at the CEESA Conference.  

Message from a CEESA Conference attendee to the AAS students.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” 

- Wayne Gretzky