Ask For Help

It seems the hardest thing for most people is to ask for help. We see this act as a sign of weakness. When we are very young, we want independence. Then as we are growing up, when we ask for help, we are encouraged to try to do it ourselves. So, when we get older and we really do need help, we don’t ask for it. Maybe we need to teach students when it is actually appropriate to ask for help and that asking for help is not a bad thing.

My husband will lift things that are too heavy for him even though he knows his back will pay for it later. I think he doesn’t want to admit that he is getting older and needs help.

I am at the end of two courses that I teach online. Every week I send an email, summarizing this coming week’s assignments and letting people know I’m available for help. I tell them to call, text, email, or set up a zoom meeting with me. I’m here to answer any questions or concerns they may have.

Since we have the final exam this week, I sent out a study guide and encouraged students to reach out to me. I really want my students to do well on the exam. Only one student contacted me and we went over things she needed to pay attention to for the exam.

I can’t make my students ask for help but I’m sure more than one student has questions or concerns. Have I given them some reason that they don’t feel they can reach out to me? Have I tried to keep the lines of communication open? Is this normal for online courses? What can I do differently to help students interact with me? These are some of the questions I have rattling around my head.

How can we break this cycle of students not asking for help when they need it? What do you think? Please share.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash