“You love those kids like crazy and if you’re anything like me, you tend to let them off the hook too easy at times. But that is not parenting brave. Parenting brave requires the very same thing of us that we are trying to train in our kids, making decisions not based solely on what is right in front of us, but with the end result in mind. In this case that would be responsible and capable adults.”
I realized that this applies to teachers too. Teaching brave requires us to do many things in order to teach our students to do hard things. Sometimes doing the right thing can cause anxiety but in the long run it will be worth it if my students learn to face up to and accomplish hard things.
I need to encourage and cheer on effort but I need to let my students fail. I don’t need to sugar coat their failure and automatically give them an A because they tried. From our mistakes, we learn the most. I need to help my students learn why they failed. Maybe they really didn’t study hard enough. Maybe they studied but had trouble remembering the key concepts. If this is the case, I need to help them find strategies that will help them remember these things. Maybe they need to try to do something a different way because it might be the process that is causing the bad result.
As a teacher, I need to have higher expectations from my students and not give them excuses. Allowing them to have excuses just makes them weaker and not stronger. If there is an obstacle in their way, I need to find a way to help them overcome the obstacle. Then they need to work on overcoming it. If I do it for them, then I am the one who has overcome the obstacle and not them.
I need to expect them to take responsibility for their actions. When they don’t do the things that are expected, they should face the consequences. Of course, I will make sure that they understand what their responsibility is and the consequences if they fail to do their duty. Only with consistency, will they learn that taking responsibility for things is something they can control. I do not need to keep reminding them or begging them to do things. I should expect things to get done just as my boss expects me to do my job.
How do you teach students to do the hard things? Please share.
1 comment:
From my observation, but this was mostly the parents' whom I was observing, but nevertheless, it's about an instant reaction "yes" or instant "no". You can call those attitudes pessimis, optimsim, if you like, but it's about what kind of reaction will there e if a child will suggest an initative. If there will be a general encouragement or general disapproval of an idea. The former helps build in streghth in a kid, the latter quite opposite.
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