Never Say Never

In How long is “never”? from Seth Godin's Blog Seth Godin shares,

“Some things actually deserve “never.” But most of what we’re worried about probably would be better categorized as “eventually.””

Never means not ever. To never do something means you won’t do this ever again on any occasion.

When I first learned to crochet, I said I would never learn to knit. A year later, I was knitting and have been ever since. At the time I learned to knit, I said I would never learn to spin yarn, and then I bought a drop spindle and learned to spin. I bought 3 drop spindles after that. At that time, I said I would never buy a spinning wheel. I now have three spinning wheels. I learned to stop saying the word never!

It is too easy to use the word Never and we really don’t mean it. When my kids were little, they would get mad and say they would never talk to me again, but they do. When I eat something that makes me gain weight, I say I will never eat that again, but I do.

Many times, my students have told me that they can never learn something. I try to get them to change their phrasing to – I haven’t learned how to do this…yet. Maybe it will take more time but if they want to learn something bad enough, I believe they can learn how to do something. This doesn’t mean they will stick with it forever, but they could learn how to do something eventually. Different people learn at different rates so they can’t compare themselves to someone else.

I put up a poster that has the phrase, “I haven’t learned how to do this…yet.” Whenever I hear a student say they can’t do something, they end it by saying they can never learn this. I stop them and point to the poster and have them repeat the new saying. It eventually becomes a game and even other students will join in when they hear someone say they never can learn something. Everyone stops and points to the poster. They like being the one who points to the poster and not the one who is having to say the statement. It takes a while but soon, most of the students stop saying the never word.

How do you break students from saying never? Please share.