Tough Love

I agree with the ideas that Large has put forth. It is understandable that parents wish to baby their children forever, but the world surely will not. The idea is to nurture your children from the start just as any parent would then know when to step back and let the child develop on their own. As the article states, “…if you want success, build character and the rest will follow.” This would work in K-12 schooling as I believe a lot of teachers try to incorporate a similar idea, at least in my experience. No one is there to hold your hand, unless you need it. I have had multiple classes throughout my K-12 career that consisted of self-taught classes. The teacher was their teacher another class, but if I needed the assistance I was free to ask for help. You have that comfort zone of knowing the teacher is there, but at the same time you are, in a sense, totally self reliant to effectively absorb the text. Students should not expect their teachers to be there step by step through every problem. Rather, they should build up our ability to be self-taught in early levels of schooling and slowly let us develop the ability to learn on our own. Which… unfortunately, not a whole lot of high school students could do. We all have the ability to learn, some less than others, but I have noticed it is all about why you’re learning that makes the difference. The article mentions Tough started his book with an article about rats, that rats who were nurtured young stress to do better in life. That is what I’m talking about. You need to understand the purpose of learning. Not just the idea of, I’m at school so I have to. Disregard those thoughts, you need to learn, whether it is for your parents, your teachers, your dog or you. It doesn’t matter what the purpose is, but the idea needs to be imprinted young that there is one. With a purpose comes grit, which is a reoccurring word and title of Tough’s article. Merriam-Webster defines grit as, “firmness of mind or spirit: unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger.” Purpose brings forth that grit and courage. Children who are babied until they become adults can never understand the purpose of even the most mundane tasks. If our schools follow suit and wrap their students in blankies and spoon feed their lessons every day then how will they grasp the purpose of learning.