Excuses

You never hear a champion of anything make excuses for winning... like... the sun was in my eyes but I still caught the ball... or... I have ADD but I still paid attention.

No... excuses are for losers, because they are the ones that give them.

I am thinking of a student I have who often looks out the window, fails to follow directions and struggles as a result.  I talked to her today about these poor choices she makes routinely in class and she told me that she had ADD and lots of hard things going on in her life.  She was very defensive with me.  I simply told her that she had the choice to follow directions and she had the choice to pay attention.  I told her it is always her choice.  She did not like what I was saying because I was telling her that she could do it.  She was used to being the victim and thus not being responsible for her poor choices.

I told her that I wanted her to be successful in my class.  To do this, she needed to follow instructions, pay attention, try, and start acting like she can learn.  She gave me an angry look.  I simply told her again that I wanted her to learn... and we should be on the same team.

It amazes me how many students have this victim mentality and thus take little to no responsibility for their learning and as a result, do poorly.  I want all of my students to see themselves as capable and refuse to look for excuses but rather search for ways to succeed.

Day 72