Why Tough Teachers Get Good Results - 13

       Joanne Lipman's article "Why Tough Teachers Get Good Results" reflects on the traditional ways of teaching. Lipman recalls a music teacher of her's (Jerry Kupchynsky from the Ukraine) who did not beat around the bush when it came to insulting someone's intelligence, or rather, lack thereof. This brash discipline was not meant to degrade a student; instead, it did something more. Lipman says when her teacher passed away, they celebrated his life by bringing all of his former students together to perform a concert. The turnout was overwhelming. Many of Kupchynsky's students that showed up turned out to be Ivy League graduates, professional musicians, doctors, lawyers, etc. Lipman realized that her teacher's teaching methods were quite effective in preparing her and her peers for their futures.
      This was truly a fantastic read. And all too accurate. I will be the first to say, I have learned so much more from the teachers who made me cry and pushed me past my limits. For me, it was more like I felt like I wanted to impress my teachers. If I tried harder and did better in whatever task I was given, then my teachers would approve of me and think I was a great student. At the same time, I felt like if I did not work hard or if I failed, then I wasn't good enough. And I wanted to be the best I could be. My favorite parts of the article were when Lipman stated that failure is an option. This is a lesson I've learned with life and school lessons. I feel like we sugarcoat things too much nowadays. Failure isn't always a bad thing. And it's definitely inevitable. We learn valuable lesson after we have failed at something. We just take what we have learned from that failure and try again. Failure is negative when it becomes consistent with no effort made to learn from what we did wrong the first time. Children AND teachers need to know this. If a child fails a test and makes no effort to do better, then that child needs to know that there are consequences such as receiving a failing grade or even repeating that grade.