According to a recent Los Angeles Times article, the new Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, David Brewer, told principals and managers that they must change a pervasive culture of “low expectations for brown and black children.” And in a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, a similar alarm was sounded for Special Education students.
I believe the expectations we set for our own children is critical. Far too often, adults don’t give kids credit for being able to rise to a challenge. In an effort to promote self esteem, we fail to remember that personal growth comes from facing challenges head on and successfully overcoming them. You will see this first hand watching any child play a video game: the initial frustration; the digging in and working hard; and the utter joy when they successfully accomplish the task. Yes, there is failure involved, but ultimately it is this failure that drives kids to succeed.
Our job as adults is to show them the path and teach them how to turn their failure into success. Simply creating a lower expectation will not help the child grow and may actually teach them that they don’t need to work hard.
I think kids will pleasantly surprise you, so raise those expectations!
~ Matthew Hausmann, Vice President ~
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