d. m. arney, m.a.

Met with a student’s teacher yesterday and had to work with her to discover the best way to push my client ahead in math. I saw it from her perspective, my client has made exponential change in the last six months compared to years of special education before. The teacher sees this change and wants to push him to try more complicated math. But I had to walk her through how doing so might push him back to old coping techniques that I am diligently, and forcefully having to break. My philosophy is that only on a firm, solid foundation can we ask for a student to do more. Confidence comes from successive and regular little successes. And it is easily lost by one or two failures. I suffered from the same syndrome this weekend working with a college student. I wanted her to write this really cool integrated essay on Flannery O’Connor, but I had to pause and realize that she is a sophomore and she has made huge amounts of progress. Recognizing that and letting the professor reward it is more important than my desire to see her reach a higher level. There is always time for that, and that’s the biggest sin we commit. Learning doesn’t happen on a schedule, no matter how much we try to force it.