Saturday morning at the ice-rink a boy about 7 years old kept falling down.
The instructor would help him up and he’d fall again. When she got him up he only wanted to hold on to her. He didn’t want to try to stand or skate alone.
I could see the look on his face. Total frustration, almost red-faced anger at his young age. The instructor would help him time and time again – even getting down on the ice and showing him how to position his feet and legs so he could get up by himself like all the other young skaters were. Everyone was falling down and eventually getting back up all by themselves. This little boy was not really trying. He’d look like he tried to get up and then fall again and squirm until someone came to ‘help’ him. The instructors were looking back and forth at each other wondering how many times to ‘help’ him – when he would not help himself. He was not incapable – just not-capable because of his thinking. Somewhere along the way, he had given in to the ‘I can’t’ mentality. I imagine it was more than just on the ice.
The reason I could see it so clearly is that had been me at different times in my life…Algebra and math. I just ‘couldn’t‘ (I thought). Or meeting new people. I was too shy (unwilling to step out of my security box). I put off learning computers for years – thinking it was a passing fad. ‘I can’t‘ trying to rule me again.
Many times, teachers have learned…allow the student to struggle until they are hungry enough to learn. Then they will.
Back to the boy on the ice. He wasn’t ready to learn. Not yet. Give him a little more time, or maybe find something else he is interested in. Don’t nurture the ‘I can’t’.
In our mind, if we will remove the ‘t‘, it will spell, ‘I can‘. The first step is begin to recognize all our ‘I can’ts’
Where can I begin today?
Mrs. Goodfinder 