“At school, you have to be this perfect student. And then at home, your family expects you to be that perfect child again. But with your friends, you do all of these bad things, just to get away from everything you have to be.” -Alma (Everything Is Off Balance, Chp 1)

What is the perfect student?
What is the perfect child?
Why do our students think that we expect perfection from them?
I think it is important as educators to make sure our students know that we accept them for who they are.

Our students are not aware of our reasons, as educators, for making them follow certain procedures or guidelines, they don’t know what the big picture looks like. Keeping that in mind is important for our delivery of these guidelines. Yelling at them and commanding them to get certain things done is not effective, because they may follow your instructions, but it can put a strain on your teacher-student relationship.
Having follow up conversations can be an effective tool in maintaining the psychological health of our students. A simple conversation between teacher and student, explaining why they took these steps and why these things are important, can help our students slowly become more aware of the bigger picture without it becoming frightful or overwhelming.