“In school, the child is doing great.”

A sentence often meant as a compliment. It describes a child who meets expectations: calm, focused, compliant, ready to perform. What it does not describe is the cost of this adaptation. Increasingly, a pattern is emerging that is rarely discussed in educational contexts: children who appear stable in school collapse outside that framework, at home, in the afternoon, or on weekends.

Imagine being unable to create images in your mind – no faces, no places, no visual memories. For people with aphantasia, this is everyday life. How does this affect learning processes, creative tasks, or personal relationships? What can you do to support those affected – and could it be that your child is affected as well?

How we talk about children shapes how they see themselves. Why “not wrong” still sounds wrong – and what a language can look like that strengthens children instead of judging them.

Children need adults. Not as judges, not as project managers. But as people who serve them. To serve means creating spaces, setting boundaries as railings rather than walls, and taking responsibility. Not every wish, not perfection – but balance and a shared burden.