Thursday, April 28, 2022

Fast is Not Always Best

In “Not a heavy lift” from Seth Godin's Blog by Seth Godin states,

“Just because it’s fast doesn’t mean it’s worth doing.”

In Florida, we eat at a place where the servers wear interesting shirts. They say, “Fast food is not good. Good food is not fast. We serve good food. ”

In my classroom, many of my students with special needs are behind their peers in academics and they know they are behind. They want to learn but they want it to happen quickly. They want to be at the same level as their peers and they want to be there NOW! A lot of their behavior issues occur because they are frustrated and impatient. They want to be caught up and be like everyone else. Yet, their behavior issues put them even further behind and it is a vicious cycle.

Some teachers expect assignments done quickly and correctly. Yet, when a learner is just learning a new skill, they will be slow and make mistakes. It takes practice to be able to do things quickly.

When I first learned to drive, I drove slowly, even on the interstate. Now I have to make sure I go the speed limit and not too fast. That is because I have years of experience driving and I’m more confident. It didn’t happen instantly.

I spend a lot of time talking about this with my students. I help them accept the fact that they are behind and that it will take time to get to the level where their peers are at this moment. It doesn’t mean that they aren’t as important as their peers. For some reason, many students tie their self-worth to their academic level. Maybe as adults, we subconsciously put this pressure on students.

As adults, we can be aware of the students are putting in a lot of effort and they should be rewarded. I believe putting in the effort is more important than the completion of the project. Students should be praised for trying and not giving up even if they aren’t successful. Great inventors weren’t successful with their early attempts but no one says that they aren’t worthy people.

How do you explain to students that fast is not always best? Please share.

Photo by Veri Ivanova on Unsplash

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