I remember years ago I was looking at my seventh graders at the start of class and I asked them, “How many of you remember having been told in the last week or two that you are doing a good job, that you are just good?”
Not one child responded positively. In fact, they looked bewildered by the question, as if someone had taken off their handcuffs and they didn’t know what to do next.
So I told them, “Well, you ARE good, and you don’t have to do anything special in my class. You are good enough as you are.”
May God in heaven help us finally learn that we are not serving our children if we are constantly challenging them to do things that they in many cases are just plain too young to be able to do.
May we learn to challenge them in ways that don’t crush them.
That old 20th century shit doesn’t work anymore.