The Orchid and the Dandelion: Why Some Children Struggle and How All Can Thrive

by W. Thomas Boyce

Most children—in our families, classrooms, or communities—are more or less like dandelions; they prosper and thrive almost anywhere they are planted. Like dandelions, these are the majority of children whose well-being is all but assured by their constitutional hardiness and strength. There are others, however, who, more like orchids, can wither and fade when unattended by caring support, but who—also like orchids—can become creatures of rare beauty, complexity, and elegance when met with compassion and kindness.

In the end, it will be the remarkable complementarity of orchids and dandelions that we will want to sustain and remember: the usefulness, and often love, of the one for the other, the symmetry and mutuality of their symphonic roles in human discourse and history, and their coevolution as distinctive but equally cogent solutions to the deep dilemmas life calls forth.