Students who Lose in School Win in Life

I cannot rail against this disturbing trend enough times -- schools are babying and accommodating students rather than challenging them and teaching them to reach beyond their limits, that the limits which they or their parents or their communities have imposed on them are not at all true.
A secretary at one school told me that she would close the door on student helpers who felt justified waltzing into the office five minutes late. She refused to put up with such insolent behavior, and she would not relent, even in the face of pressure from the counselors. The principal forced the secretary to set up a meeting with the rest of the office staff to resolve the issue.

The secretary did the right thing. She refused to let the students get away with doing less than the best, because the world will look for the best and still expect more if a man wants to succeed in any calling that he chooses to take up.

A teacher must show the student that he has so much more going for him than what someone else says or thinks. Students will never know what they are made if they never fail, if they are never permitted to try to fly, even if they end up falling flat on their face.

It is normal for students to rebel, but it is abusive and abnormal to permit a spirit of rebellion to remain in a child. There is no greater disservice, no greater witchcraft than to permit young people to fight and talk back to their elders.

I remember when I was covering a first grade class in Hermosa Beach. One of the students would contradict or argue with me when I was telling another student what to do.

"It is not OK for you to talk back to an adult. Go change your card and sit in the corner."

Most students are all about testing the limits, and that young boy was not exception. He was a good natured kid, and at the end of the day he was glad that I did not let him get away with anything.

Nothing worse than not letting someone fail -- public schools are doing no one any favors by letting them get away with everything. If there is a tussle between student and teacher, the teacher must win, or in the long run the student will lose!

Students who lose in school will win in life, if we would only look past the initial inconveniences and consider the greater glory that young people can enter.