A Crash Course in Teaching

Disappointment as a Teaching Tool

July 13, 2014

My title sounds a bit barbaric, but I got the idea from listening to a Radiolab broadcast about morality in which a woman talks about a game she played in her third grade class.

While she learned a lot of lessons during the role play, the comment she made that stuck with me is that her teacher’s disappointment in her was the greatest factor that caused her to learn something about herself.

I’m not into negative motivation as the basis of my teaching, but there is something to be said about its power when you have a relationship with a student and you are genuinely disappointed in him/her. There is great power in that to cause the student to move toward self reflection and self-learning.

There is more to think about this.

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