One of the key messages we teach our children form the earliest of ages is DO SOMETHING! Everyone can offer something.
If you see something wrong do something about it!
If you hear something wrong say something!
If you do something wrong face it and own it!
If you have a problem find ways to solve it!
If you have a worry share it!
I saw this quote earlier this week on an educational forum and I thought: ‘well, that does sum it up for me’.
No-one likes criticism. None of us.
When you are between the age of 3 years old and 13 years old, criticism can be a very difficult thing to overcome and move forwards from. Nevertheless, we must criticise our children because they do and are going to get some things very wrong. It is when there is a strong culture of respect and trust, alongside a strong pupil-teacher relationships, that this criticism can be used and harnessed to encourage self improvement of impressive scales.
Like I always say, we DO NOT want our children to have a perfectly mowed and manicured lawn to walk through their education journey. We want them to walk through the rough ground, climb the mountains and basically attack every terrain. We do this by making things hard for them and giving out criticism (albeit as constructively and sensitively as possible), because we will then show children how to achieve great things and reach their potential with confidence and integrity.
