Why I encourage my students to embrace the 'hard'.

As a child were you taught to embrace hard things? Or like me, were you taught to be a ‘good girl’, listen well and get things right. Were you taught to try not to get things wrong? Were you taught that if you did badly in a test that it was your fault, that there was something wrong with you, that you should have done better or that you needed to revise more?

I desire to teach my own son something different. And I feel the same with my students.

99% of the time, when my students begin tuition with me, they are petrified of getting things wrong. When I tell them they’ve got something wrong they become upset, frustrated, annoyed and even angry. They so desperately want to get things right.

They quickly learn that I feel no different about them getting things right as I do about them getting things wrong. In fact, I encourage them to get things wrong. We discuss how we feel. I tell them about my own life and what I do when I get things wrong. I tell them about how much success I’ve had because I finally allowed myself to get things wrong.

I’ve seen students truly transform.

From children who hated to get things wrong to children who embrace getting things wrong.

Children who tell me ‘We learn from our mistakes after all’ and ‘It doesn’t matter, I will try again’ and ‘Let’s go through this together and find out why I went wrong’.

Incredible.

What an incredible life skill to have. To learn from early on that it is absolutely ok to make mistakes.