I wrote awhile ago that I want to do something excellent, to have the thrill of the knowledge of a job well done. Well, now I am in a struggle balancing out excellence and good enough.
Here is an example. There are three Latin students. One studies almost every night, does his homework regularly, and gets straight A's. One studies nightly, does his homework, and fails his tests. The other one doesn't study, turns in every assignment late, and fails his tests. The first, though he can improve, seems to be pursuing excellence. He wants to learn and does what is needed to learn. The last one seems to be a lazy bum because he doesn't like languages. He can do the work, but it isn't the most enjoyable thing, so he puts it off.
The middle student is where I get caught. He wants to do well in the class; he does what is required of him, and yet you cannot say that his work is excellent. It would even be difficult to say he is pursuing excellence. But because he is doing his best, his work is good enough, and therefore satisfactory?
Stepping back from the specific example, a bigger question can be asked. How do we hang on to and hold out excellent work without discouraging those who work hard but are not excellent? It is especially difficult in an educational environment, where we expect excellent results, but the students are still in the process of learning what is good and how to get there.
Something one of the actors I once worked with said comes to mind, "Sharing our work at this stage of completion." She understood that work, especially works of art, can always be worked on more, but sometimes we have to stop and share our work, "at this stage of completion." By stating it that way, the pressure to be excellent was off and she handed me the freedom to make a mistake. Was she not in a way helping me to pursue my fullest ability?
Now for the tricky part. How can I give that freedom to my students? How can I tell them, and their parents, that if they are doing their best, failing is good enough? And then how can I tell my music students that they cannot sing in a concert because they aren't good enough? How do I hold out excellence, and still give them the freedom to do their best without fear of failure?
I guess I think of it in terms of objective excellence vs. relative excellence. You hand me those three test papers and I'll tell you: this first paper is excellent. It appears the student is most likely a gifted young person who studies hard and puts forth his/her best effort.
ReplyDeleteBut when I know the specifics of the case, I would tend to say the middle student, too, is putting for his/her best case. I remember hearing of a father who would daily celebrate with his daughter over her regular "C" report cards and grades - because that was the best SHE could do, striving for excellence.
For the population over all, an A+ is excellent. But for your middle student, maybe failing, or making low grades, is still that person doing his/her absolute best. And that is excellent.
I guess it begs for schools to allow a grade of "withdrawn as not my cup of tea." Schools in particular seem to have a hard time of it. In the working world, if you are terrible at something despite your best efforts, you don't make any money and figure out pretty quickly you should move on (happened to me with a courier job), and there isn't much associated with that decision other than the time spent on the job and time finding a new one. But in school, your taking that class (especially if it is a required class) sticks with you forever.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. They give me more to think about.
ReplyDeleteIt struck me that my post assumes that there is benefit in learning something, unrelated to the practicality or grade that is received. Do you think there is validity in that idea?