More Lies of Perfectionism

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I know my last blog was on the pressures facing our students to be perfect, but I’m going to continue on this soapbox again today.  Like many industries, trends and new initiatives come and go in the education sector.  During my fourth year of teaching, the idea of “mastery” became king.  We were “encouraged” to allow students to take retakes on quizzes and tests if they didn’t perform well the first time around in an attempt to give them another chance to master the material. 
In theory, this sounds great.  Especially in a subject like math, where content builds on itself, why wouldn’t we want the students to master these skills before moving on to the next topic?  In practicality, though, it meant that students typically didn’t study the first time around because they knew they had another shot.  While there were sometimes extenuating circumstances where these retakes were beneficial for students, such as family emergencies or illness, the majority of the time, I think this whole concept was a bust for two reasons. 1) Students weren’t taught to take responsibility, learn how to study properly, or meet deadlines.  2) It encouraged the idea that average isn’t good enough and perfect is attainable.
Just a couple of weeks ago I was flipping through radio stations in my car and landed on  WINC FM 92.5.  They were advertising a golf tournament they were sponsoring for teen suicide prevention and the tagline was “Creating a Stronger Me”.  Isn’t that kind of the problem, though?  We tell these kids that if they’re not doing well, in school, sports, even mental health, that they just need to try harder and be stronger.  But at the same time, they’re supposed to accept everyone else just as they are.  No wonder these kids are confused and depressed!  We’re sending them mixed signals and all the while, the advice we should be giving them is that their identity is secure when they understand they were created by the God of the universe and have been bought with a price by the risen Savior, Jesus Christ.  The next time we’re tempted to tell ourselves or anyone else to just “be stronger” let’s remember the words of the apostle Paul when he was dealing with his own thorn in the flesh: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).

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