Be positive. Try hard

"Be positive, try hard." This is my new mantra. It's amazing how effective it is, and how easily it applies to everything in my life.

This was my zen lesson for a class of freshman honors English students who, after a week and a half of class, were convinced that their teacher hated them. Mrs. Cavanaugh is not the kind of person that most students would find endearing right away. She only yells at someone she cares about, and you know that if she stops then you've really done something wrong. These kids had not yet figured out her personality, and were pretty badly shaken when she rode them pretty hard about their first quiz. I thought the scores showed decent performance from most of the class, but Mrs. Cavanaugh focused on the fact that the lowest score was in the 40s and there were no perfect scores, even though the huge majority of the scores were between 85 and 92. The kids picked up on the negative statements and took them personally, which leached all of their enthusiasm out into the ether and left no obvious way to bring them back.

The next week Mrs. Cavanaugh left early to attend a conference, which left me as the substitute for the remainder of the class. I don't teach the freshmen but I'm usually in the room while they're here and they know me, so it didn't surprise me much when they said "She hates us," almost in unison.

I knew this was coming, and I'd already realized that no one had ever explained to these kids what is really expected of honors students. So before they started their assignment for the day I tried to spend a couple of minutes explaining that Mrs. Cavanaugh didn't hate them, but that she didn't think they were performing the way honors students should and outlined what was expected for a minute or two. Deaf ears. They heard what I was trying to say as a deriding lecture. This was obvious when every one of them started quietly working. I had not delivered the motivational talk that I wanted to.

Fortunately for everyone, tomorrow is always a new day, and with young people one day is completely different than the next. When they started filing in for class the next day, I could see the trepidation in their faces. They all wanted to do well and have fun here, but none of them knew how to make this happen and it showed on nearly every one of their faces.

The five-second zen lesson : "Be positive, try hard, and you'll do well with her." I said this to every one of them was as much encouragement and authority as I could manage before Mrs. Cavanaugh came to class. It was a different class that day. You have not lived until you've seen a group of 15 ninth graders who are suddenly determined to do well, and know how to make it happen. These kids will change the world one day if we can keep the rest of their teachers from taking this away.

Be positive. Try hard.