April 2, 2015
An essay is never finished; it’s just turned in.
I had this conversation with my nine year-old daughter on the way home from school the other day. She was upset because she had an essay returned to her by her teacher with a number of red marks. Her feelings were hurt because she had worked so hard on it. “But honey,” I said, “your teacher is helping you improve your writing so you are able to express your ideas more clearly. A writing assignment is never really finished, it’s just turned in.” There is always room for improvement.
Whether it is an essay, science project, or math test, we seem to be focused more on success than we are mastery. Success is a one-time thing, but mastery is ongoing and is about endurance. Mastery is a life-long pursuit, not something you simply check off your to-do list. It involves a deep inner desire or drive to get better at a skill or content area. Success is often associated with external reward while mastery is the result of intrinsic motivation.
Mastery in academic terms is grounded in a joy of learning. Students need to be interested and engaged and enjoy learning in order for mastery to take root. They also have to see that what they are learning or doing matters, that it is part of a larger context. That is why traditional approaches of rote memorization or “drill and kill” techniques are ineffective in the long run.
Mastery is related to grit and resiliency. Success abhors failure but mastery depends on it. Hockey great Wayne Gretsky once said, “You will miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Children will not take risks if they fear failure. If we send the message to our children that we value only success, then when they inevitably fail, they slip into despair and anxiety.
When we as parents and educators emphasize grades and test scores, we are sending the wrong message. Instead, parents and educators need to foster attitudes such as a work ethic, willingness to think strategically, tolerance for ambiguity, capacity to delay gratification and clarity of what quality looks like (Tomlinson, 2015). At school and at home, parents and educators must find ways to encourage self-comparisons and avoid comparing themselves with other students. We must refrain from putting pressure on our children by talking too much about grades and assignments. Finally, we must encourage continual improvement, even after the assignment is turned in.
