Last week my nine-year-old had to do a speech at school. As she’s not one to court the limelight, I knew she’d be nervous so I was impressed with how conscientiously she was preparing in advance. We did many run-throughs beforehand and gradually she appeared to be finding her groove. I even detected a note of enjoyment in her voice. So it was with great excitement that I hurried home the next night to hear how she’d got on. I found her furiously applying crayons to paper and refusing to meet my eye. “How’d it go?” I asked tentatively. Turns out, not good. I’d hoped to find her on a high from having achieved something difficult and instead she was deflated. “Well, all that matters is that you did it,”…
