When first reading this question, it kind of made me smile, so I knew I had to choose it. It made me think back to all childhood and school memories and every single teacher I have ever had. I honestly can say I liked everything growing up as a child. I never fully struggled as a child in any subject except for art. Maybe that is why, to this day, I still dislike art and struggle with it. I am the least creative person I think I know. If someone told me to draw something it would be of a “stick person”. I really try when it comes to that kind of stuff, but I just am not good at it. It puts me in a bad mood whenever I have to make or draw something.
The funny thing is I liked all of my art teachers growing up. I got a long with each one of them and felt they were very talented teachers. They never told me I was horrible at art. As long as I was trying my best that is all that matters. I think that is very true when it comes to teachers and students these days.
As long as a teacher can fully understand and see a student is giving it every thing they have when it comes to school related subjects, I feel that is what is most important. Not every student is going to be great at every subject, but on the other hand, not every student is going to be bad at every subject. When a student just cannot get it, the teacher needs to step in and acknowledge the student’s efforts. I am fortunate I had teachers that recognized my efforts and still made me enjoy something I struggled with.
In the end, I am very jealous for the people that are extremely creative. I wish I could have some of your talent, but hopefully with my students and clients I can come up with different ways of being creative that don’t deal with colors and paper.
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3 comments:
That's so funny and ironic that you didn't like art but you liked all your teachers. I guess that just goes to show how important positive reinforcement is. It is so true that students need to recognized for trying their best, no matter what their finished product looks like. How are they ever going to get ambition to continue if all they ever hear is that they are not good enough?
Someone has to believe in these students and encourage them to try their best.
It is completely fine to not be good at something. No one is perfect but the fact that you tried your best is all that matters. I myself know how you feel. I have struggled with subjects before, especially history, all of my life and it can make a person very down trodden. But the one thing that you can not do is completely give up. Sometimes with age, as in my case with history, you find your way through something and find that it has worked better than you could have ever hoped for. I dreaded having to take 2 history courses when coming here but found, once I got to it, that I was better at it then when I was in high school. I have to attribute a bit of age to that because by the time I got there, I had learned the proper way to study and gain the knowledge I needed.
So I would have to say, try it a little later in life. Never completely give up on something if it is something that you always wished you could do. You may find your niche later on in life.
I could not agree with you more that it is important for teachers to recognize a student’s efforts. Looking at this from an SLP’s view I can certainly recognize how important it is to realize that not everyone is going to be good at something. There are times when a client’s progress may be slow, or a certain task may be challenging. The important thing is to remember to applaud the effort, if a client is really trying, but simply “not getting it” yet; we as SLPs either need to change our approach to better assist the client or continue to encourage them to try. It is so easy to get frustrated with something and give up because you don’t think you’re good at it and thus don’t like it. With the right kind of encouragement and reinforcement people may still not like something, but they will be more apt to try and have a more positive experience while doing it.
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