I just wanted to recap for a moment about what happened on Friday 1/15/2010. I gave a quiz on Trigonometry (BTW, one of my favorite subject areas). I told my first period class to choose two out of the three problems on the front of the quiz and two out of four problems on the back. The front of the quiz had three problems that were fairly equal in difficulty, but there were two problems on the back that were particularly easier than the other two. Just take a wild guess as to which two problems the majority of the class completed on the back of the quiz? You guessed it! They completed the easier problems. There were only about two students that selected one of the harder problems and then one of the two easier ones.
Where is the self-challenge in these students? When one challenges oneself to go beyond the easy way out, it feels better in the end and one begins to believe in oneself. Do students know and understand this philosophy? Should we always strive to go beyond what is the easiest thing to complete? Do we do this in our daily lives? I can truly tell you that I do NOT look for the easy way out or simpliest thing to do! I strive for bigger and better as often as I can! We need to instill this into our childrens' minds!!! Otherwise we will have a world filled with people who are Get-Byers with no intellectual depth, no inspiration to do more or be more; we will be like robots just doing what we are told. When our children grow up, how will they solve the world problems with a planet full of Get-Byers???
Now, there are those select few students that do stand out and go above and beyond what is asked of them, but sometimes two students out of 120 might not be enough. As a teacher, I will strive to instill a better thought process in my students' minds and I can only hope that parents will do the same!
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE!
Challenging oneself is not easy but at the end it is most gratifying. Why do our kids chose the easy way? I guess it's just that simple easier. We know as adults that choosing the most challenging situations push us to place we have never gone too. It helps us become better people and learn more. It is scary sometimes but what challenge is easy? As you stated it is the responsibilities of the parents in conjunction with other role models to guide them in challenging themselves. Keep up the great work !
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