Quote of the Day: Mary MacCracken on Parenting & Family

Before she became known for championing students who learn differently, Mary MacCracken faced the daily grind of a classroom where labels arrived faster than understanding, where a child could be reduced to a file of “can’ts” before anyone noticed the quiet “can” hiding in plain sight. That hard-won perspective is what gives her reminder its edge: “It is a teacher's job to find the strengths in each child and build upon them.”

Read plainly, it sounds like optimism. Read closely, it’s a rebuke to a system that treats schooling like a sieve, sorting winners from strugglers and calling the result “merit.” Strength-finding isn’t sentimental; it’s diagnostic. It asks a teacher to look for the working parts first: the obsession with stories, the knack for patterns, the calm focus during hands-on tasks. Those are not distractions from “real” learning; they’re the on-ramps.

Starting with strengths doesn’t deny gaps. It makes filling them possible. A student who can explain a plot twist may be coached into argument; a child who thinks in pictures can be led into abstraction without being shamed for needing images first. The point is leverage: competence creates momentum, and momentum builds resilience. In diverse classrooms, this is also equity in practice, support that is responsive rather than uniform, and a culture where different minds are treated as assets, not inconveniences.

As a devoted American special education teacher and author, Mary MacCracken built her work around the lived reality of learners too often underestimated. Her books on teaching argue, again and again, that dignity is a strategy, not an afterthought.

April ends today, a natural moment for teachers and families to audit what’s been emphasized all month: errors, or evidence of growth. Try one concrete shift, name a student’s specific strength, then design the next challenge to ride on it. That’s not just better instruction; it’s leadership in the most intimate arena we have.