15 Mar Slice of Life: Should We Be Impressed? #SOL19 #TWTBlog

Good news is we have plenty of gas.

It would never occur to me that we wouldn’t have plenty of gas in our aircraft.  Am I supposed to be impressed by this announcement?  Shouldn’t this be a basic expectation before takeoff?  I would think checking fuel would be a priority.  I think we need to do a better job recognizing what should be a given and what is impressive or commendable.

As I sit on the plane, my mind wanders to back to last week when I saw a teacher talking to her students as they lined up at the door.  They were heading to music. 

I hope you enjoy music.  Please remind Ms. S that you will be walking back to class on your own as well. 

With that, she went into her classroom and the students led themselves to music. 

I connected these two experiences in my mind.  So often I see kids getting a marble or some reward for walking quietly down the hall or cleaning up after themselves.  I worry we are dumbing kids down when we reward them or compliment them for what should be an expectation.  Kids should be respectful of their community.  Kids should act safely.  Kids should be polite and kind.  We need to have higher expectations of our kids so that they will have higher expectations of themselves.  Research has shown that often we live up to the lowest expectation … this is important to remember.

It surprised me that I immediately put these two experiences together, but I know I will now be thinking more about both of them. That teacher knowing her class is fully capable of walking to music – no reminders, no rewards, no compliments.  It’s simply how they do business.  Just like an aircraft should have plenty of gas.

Clare

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