By: Michele Borba, Ed.D.   “Why do some kids thrive while others strive?” My quest to find that answer began as a college student when I first learned of my own father’s childhood struggles. His parents were illiterate and destitute. His father died when he was two, and Dad was placed in an orphanage. Yet,

Contributed by Michelle Kuo, author of Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship Every teacher has likely experienced two emotions: the feeling that you’ve gotten through to a student and the feeling that you’ve let him down. In the first, the classroom is a powerful place of human connection, and the