Stacy Duval

Website Design and Digital Marketing

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Changing the Culture of Criticism

ChangeMore often than not, we react on a situation that we feel is wrong rather than a situation that we feel is good. We feel more strongly connected to making things right than praising a situation that has changed or is doing fine. One time, my nephew’s teacher called me at home to tell me he had received the highest grade on a test. This was good news and not a common occurrence for my nephew. I asked the teacher why he was calling me; usually the call is about the opposite. He replied that he always calls the parents of the students who have earned both the lowest and the highest scores. I’ve often wondered what would happen if we adopted this strategy in everything we do. Does paying equal attention to what is great in your life change and enhance our experiences?

I’m not saying we should not be realistic about our shortcomings. What I am saying is that we spend most of our time criticizing situations we feel need to change. Suppose we brought this into balance. Suppose we spent just as much time searching out people in our lives to tell them we liked what they did or we felt the situation was a very wise and good one. This is the way I try to teach. I find what is good and praise to the hilt. My results are not instant in any way.

Today I decided to act on my words and I sent out emails to all the people in my life I needed to praise.

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Why I Want Students to Struggle With Homework

These are the words of my mentor, Jamie York:

I firmly believe that “struggle” should be part of the experience of doing math. I even go as far to say that it is “good to be confused” (as long as it is a temporary state!); it presents an opportunity to wrestle with something difficult. By figuring out something that was once perplexing, the student’s confidence is boosted and thinking is strengthened.

Contrary to what the norm might be, it is not my goal to make math easy. Perhaps, at times, math will become easy, hopefully after some effort. But if I have to choose between two approaches, where one approach is easy but the students don’t really understand what they are doing, and the other approach is more complicated but builds an understanding of the concepts better – then I will usually the latter approach.

Likewise, there will, at times, be problems on the homework that a student won’t be confident with. Perhaps they work on it a while and in the end come to class still not knowing how to do it. I believe that this can be quite beneficial to their learning, because when they finally see me (or a fellow student) explain how to do the problem then they will learn it more deeply.

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The SAT is Optional

The SAT (and the ACT) are tests given to high school students in order to determine ability to do well in college. I love the SAT because it is a logic test and problem solving is my ball of wax, so I do a lot of SAT/ACT tutoring. However, it is not widely known that many colleges (850! at last count) accept students without the SAT or ACT. This, of course, is very good news for dyslexic students, whose right brain capabilities are not measured by these standardized logic tests. This list is compiled each year by an organization called The National Center for Fair & Open Testing or FairTest. Their goals are to “promote fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial evaluations of students, teachers and schools.” Visit their website for more information or to give a donation:

Fair Test, The National Center for Fair and Open Testing

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