A performance task is any learning activity or assessment that asks students to perform to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and proficiency. Performance tasks yield a tangible product and/or performance that serve as evidence of learning. Unlike a selected-response item (e.g., multiple-choice or matching) that asks students to select from given alternatives, a performance task presents a situation that calls for learners to apply their learning in context. Yes, I thought. I had seen this too as a teacher. What we did in many of my teaching and learning experiences didn’t quite match up to the reality of work and life. Considered one of the foremost educators of the 20 th century, she has won numerous pedagogical awards including the 2002 California Teacher of the Year by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, and the 2011 Charles O’Malley Award from Columbia Scholastic Press.

GAZETTE:How do you compare master parenting to other parenting styles that are popular these days, such as helicopter parenting, tiger parenting, authoritative parenting?

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Of course, since Greg was sixteen at the time, his parents chose his courses for him. And even though he wasn’t that great in his science classes, for some reason, these were the ones he attended. After some time, this resulted in him feeling depressed, withdrawn, and disinterested in absolutely everything. The other roles are the “revealer,” which shows children the wonders of the world, so even if they’re living in poverty, they go to museums and the library and places to meet people who the parent wants the child to know. Then there’s the “philosopher,” which may be the second-most important behind the early learning partner, because it helps children find purpose. If 3-year-olds ask deep questions, the philosopher parents don’t just blow it off; they try to answer in a way that adds to the child’s understanding of life. The sixth role is the “model” that the child aspires to emulate. Esther’s father wasn’t one who only talked the talk: he made this perfectly clear by walking the walk as well: while Lee was showered with presents and attention, Esther was merely watching from the sidelines. Successful people are able to utilize competition to motivate, but avoid falling prey to jealousy. You can nurture a healthy sense of competition by:

In other words, you need to be demanding of your child, but, moreover, you need to be responsive as well. There are also cases where one child or a couple of children get the whole formula and others in the same family don’t. Is there a way to overcome this? Yes, at least sometimes, if we make parents more conscious of the importance of the roles they play in their children’s lives. We need to encourage them to monitor their own engagement with their children and to become what we call a “student of the child” with each child, not just the most responsive or highest-achieving child. A lot of times as parents we just aren’t thinking that way; we aren’t as intentional as we could be. GAZETTE: You said the formula for master parenting is made up of eight parenting roles. What are those roles? In a long-running longitudinal study, psychologists followed a group of children who were identified by their teachers as highly intelligent. As they compared how these subjects fared throughout childhood and into adulthood, researchers found that those who ultimately were the most successful in life shared some key characteristics, including perseverance and willpower.

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FERGUSON: We wanted to get the parents’ recollections to learn not just what they did as parents, but also their intentions as they were parenting and what led them to have those intentions. In terms of their parenting, Tatsha and I were doing lots of pretty open-ended interviews with lots of young adults and their parents, and we were asking ourselves what was coming up again and again. What emerged were the eight parental roles that we say make up the formula for master parenting. It was like a hidden pattern that gradually revealed itself. And it turns out when you take them together you see that they are cultivating a set of qualities that are widely recognized, and well researched, as basic success foundations. If you have already read that summary (by all means, you should), you are familiar with the depth and extent of the “four interrelated social crises of modernity.”

But there are commonalities. The tiger parent and the master parent do not allow their child to give up easily after they’ve become engaged with something. The difference is that the master parent allows their child to choose what to engage with. And authoritative parenting has to do mainly with behavior issues, even though it’s often associated with higher achievement. The role of the revealer, for example, would not be featured when talking about authoritative parenting. The philosopher might come in when you talk about ethical behavior, but not that much. The authoritative parenting style was identified by psychologist Diana Baumrind in the late 1960s as one in which parents are responsive and loving, while enforcing high expectations and clear boundaries, mainly for the child’s behavior. But master parents also cultivate a love of learning, a sense of purpose, and the type of personal agency that can help a child become highly successful, like the people in our book. However”, she went on to say, “most jobs don’t work that way. Most of life doesn’t work that way. We are constantly asked to problem solve, work with others to find solutions, and create rather than memorize.” It is strange but true that we tend to treat those who are closest to us without the kindness and consideration that we extend to strangers. Parents love their children, but they are so familiar with them, they often take basic kindness for granted. And they don’t always model kindness as a behavior for the world as a whole. Real kindness involves gratitude and forgiveness, service toward others, and an awareness of the world outside yourself. It’s important to show our kids that the most exciting and rewarding thing you can do is to make someone else’s life better. If you are trying to learn how to be successful in life, consider what you can do to nurture these key traits:Maslach C, Leiter MP. Understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry. 2016;15(2):103–111. doi:10.1002/wps.20311