Arrogance is everywhere in our culture. Most people do not like to be corrected. Even a kindergartener who easily corrects his mistakes is an unusual child in our always-correct culture. Most often the teacher finds the child will object when asked to make necessary corrections on a piece of work.
Modern parents read one or two parenting books and immediately become experts on how to raise their child and everyone else’s child. Our culture is producing too many self-made, all-knowing experts. Not only the parents but also the children are overly arrogant.
Almost every teacher who studies and learns some educational ideas and concepts for their degree may think they are going to revolutionize education. However, they quickly learn that the actual students have methods, behaviors, and techniques to thwart the best-laid plans of a well-meaning teacher.
As every professional or tradesperson learns, most of the significant job training comes while actually working on the job through practical feedback from a master of his craft or profession. Hardly anyone who starts a new area of study realizes how much they will be learning from those who are competent and experienced. They learn to be more productive by approaching their work in a more open, correct, questioning manner instead of attempting to be an instant expert.
The student should accept the more experienced teacher’s advice at the beginning without comment. Accepting the professional assessment may or may not work depending on many variables such as personality and the teacher’s specific professional knowledge requiring them to perform the position well. However, rejecting a unique approach before even trying it is a poor policy. The novice student should follow the teacher’s instructions carefully. A student learning a complicated field of study should ask questions with respect without trying to demean the teacher’s status and knowledge.
If a young student is learning a well-established discipline that has specific “black and white” rules, such as mathematics, there is no reason to argue. The correction is done specifically one way. The more specific the teacher’s rules are, the less arguments and debate will take place. Students need to comply with the rules and follow the corrections of the professional teacher without a wasteful, impractical debate.
Once students learn to follow the teacher’s corrections without a waste-of-time argument to prove they are better and smarter than their teacher, they can focus on their fields of study. Too many young children in elementary grades confront their experienced teachers by challenging them and acting as if their answers are always right and the teacher’s assessment is always incorrect.
Many of today’s students are told at home how smart they are by their parents and refuse to accept they could be wrong and not as competent as the authority figures. These overinflated egos and overindulged youngsters are being taught the falsehood that they are smarter than they really are. When the parents actively review their child’s sloppy and incorrect assignments, they realize the child must listen to the teachers and even them more carefully.
Learning is a lifelong activity that cannot succeed if the individual is “too smart for their britches.”
Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers and blogs, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN and the latest book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.
