Looking at her father leading the opposing team, Morgan Hale felt that moment might be the biggest accomplishment of her career as head coach of Miller’s girls basketball team. Morgan’s life revolved around basketball as daughter to the head coach, Stephen Hale. After playing in high school, Morgan went on to play for Arlington Baptist University, where she pursued nursing but eventually returned to follow her father’s footsteps into a career in education.

“Originally I saw how many hours he had to put in and I thought I wouldn’t go into teaching and coaching, so I started school to be a nurse.Finally my dad’s passion inspired me.He emphasized the career in education isn’t right for everyone, but the benefits are immeasurable.” Morgan said. “If you go into this, the pay is not always great but the benefits of seeing kids succeed and things of that nature are very rewarding,” Stephen said. “You can’t put a price tag on that.”

Though father and daughter share their coaching secrets throughout the day, back home the conversation continues. Morgan said. “Definitely how I run my basketball program comes from my dad. Everything from techniques, philosophy, to sports spirit and the culture of how he ran his team.”

After a practice game early in the season, the father and daughter won’t be playing against each other again, but their teams look forward to the next match. “We didn’t keep score so we don’t know who would have won,” Morgan said. “But I definitely told my team don’t go easy on them just because it’s my dad. The coolest thing I’ve ever done in basketball is to play against him.”

Are You Treated Too Nicely?

A new study found that when trying to build high self-esteem in children, parents may unconsciously be creating little narcissists (自恋狂). 【小题1】

Parents who are always praising their children may be trying to develop high self-esteem. 【小题2】 In fact, too much special treatment can lead to narcissistic behavior.

"【小题3】 That may not be good for them or for society." Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at the Ohio State University, said in a press release. "People with high self-esteem think they're as good as others, whereas narcissists think they're better than others."

This study, as well as previous studies about parent-child relationships Bushman has worked on, caused him to alter his own parenting style. When he began his research, he thought that children should be treated like they are special by their parents. 【小题4】 He said that interventions (干预) can help parents learn how to better support their children.

"Parent training interventions can, for example, teach parents to express affection and appreciation toward children without telling children that they are superior to others," Bushman said. "Future studies should test whether this can work."

I grew up in New Hampshire, a small town in South Canada, where in my father’s words for the seasons were “Spring, Summer, Fairtime and Winter!” At that time, a week-long fair (展销会) was held in the town every autumn. Thousands of people from other towns came to sell and buy things. It was the busiest time of the year.

When “Fairtime” came, my grandma became the most “useful” and busiest person of the family. Grandma was a kind, well-educated old lady. She was good at cooking. All her relatives liked the food she cooked. During “fairtime”, they would come to live in her house and have meals there. Grandma was always happy to look after them.

Year after year, many people moved to big cities. There was no longer “Fairtime”. Grandma became very old and was gradually going blind. My parents and I moved to live with Grandma in her house. We did our best to make her day-to-day life as comfortable as possible. I was at high school then. What I often did at home was to help Grandma with the daily newspaper’s crossword puzzle. However, she didn’t look happy. She often sat in her room for hours, without saying a word.

To attract people to move back, the Town Hall decided to reopen the Fair. One day, when I came back from school, I saw Grandma wearing her glasses, washing the dishes in the kitchen. With a big smile on her face, she looked a lot much younger. She told me that her two nieces would come. “They said the food I cooked was very delicious and they want to stay in my house again,” Grandma said happily. “They will stay here for one week and we can have a big party. That must be the busiest week I’ve had in years!”

I suddenly realized that Grandma didn’t want to be looked after. She wanted to be “useful”, appreciated and helpful.