A richer semester ~ with Nagash Clarke~
Lessons from a 3-year-old, part 1
During break I was hanging out with my daughter. We had a blast. One day we were working on writing the letter “A”. She recognizes all her letters. So I asked her to write the letter A. She couldn’t. So I showed her several times. She still couldn’t (or wouldn’t). Then I started it for her and asked her to finish. All the while I was starting to get frustrated as dreams of her being enrolled in Harvard’s fast track pre-school were evaporating. I kept trying to get her to finish the “A”, but the only thing she could do was draw the horizontal line. So then I decided to relax, and applaud what she could do and end the lesson. We then went on to watch cartoons. I thought about my students. How often I pushed them to do things that I think they should do, but all they are capable of is drawing the horizontal line. I find myself now making a big deal out of small accomplishments. Even if a student fails a class, we should still applaud them if they tried. Maybe that was the first time they actually tried. So a lesson in patience, and applauding the baby steps was taught to me by my three-year-old.
Nagash Clarke
Chemistry Department
Washtenaw Community College