“If you’re in such a hurry, why don’t you ride your bike instead of walking it?”
“I don’t have time to stop and get on!”
I don’t remember where I heard or saw this joke, but it has stuck with me for decades. And I think of it often as a teacher and coach. What is it that causes so many of us to do things the hard way, pushing through without the necessary information or resources?
Read MoreDuring my career as a music teacher, I would usually demonstrate things very slowly, at a tempo that my student could match. However, sometimes, I would demonstrate a passage at speed (meaning, at the performance tempo) so that they could hear how it would eventually sound.
When I did this, my student would often forget about the “eventually” part. It sounded cool, and they wanted to try. They would attempt to replicate it at the same tempo, with poor results. If it didn’t work, they would try again several times in quick succession, leading to a stuttery, messy sound.
Read MoreA friend’s daughter, a first-grader, was invited to do math with the second graders at the start of the school year.
My friend was conflicted about it. She, herself, skipped fourth grade math and still remembers the feeling of being lost and confused in fifth grade math and resented for the privilege. She was worried that her daughter would have the same experience.
The way school subjects are organized in the American system contributes to these kinds of age vs. ability conflicts. Students are expected to move in lock-step with their cohort, regardless of whether they understand the material. If they don’t, they will be with kids of a different age, which has the potential to cause social problems and still doesn’t guarantee that they’ll have their academic needs met.
Read MoreJason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp, doesn’t believe in goals. He claims he’s never had one.
Imagine being able to succeed by just wanting to make things — and make things better for everyone. Fried is proof that it is possible.
So often, we focus on an external timeline that we have to satisfy in order to be acceptable. We believe that if we fail to keep up with others (or with our own imagined future self), our efforts have no value — or even that we have no value.
Read MoreAs students, the hunger for achievement and approval leads us in strange directions.
Some of us are ashamed of doing material that feels like "review," even if it isn't actually mastered.
We'd rather push through, no matter how uncomfortable and frustrating it is, than slow down, take our time, and master whatever it is that we're working on.
Where does this come from?
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