At my school many parents have very high expectations of their children. This is a great thing – especially if it is fundamentally an expectation in terms of effort. Sometimes, though, it can be an absolute expectation in terms of performance. This can also be a good thing, but occasionally it puts a student into the painful situation of being doomed not to meet the expectations of their parents. As a teacher this can be diffficult for me, but it is surely far more difficult for the poor student.

I remember reading an article about education in Japan (perhaps not a country we would want to emulate, given the high teenage suicide rate), which said that all praise in Japanese education is about effort, not performace.

Watching American Idol gives you a horrible insight into the results of ill advised ’self -esteem’ philosophies. British contestants seem similar, although they tend to find it difficult to sustain quite the same level of delusion.

I have found AifL practices useful in giving targeted praise. I’m really interested in how we use failure and making mistakes as a springboard for renewed effort. But would also like to know what place accepting limitations has.

For example, what do people think about something I heard at an INSET recently:
‘Do you believe all of your students can get an A at higher?’ Most teachers (reluctantly) said ‘No.’ -and the response was ‘Well that’s why you aren’t getting better results’.