Strength

In a recent lesson I discovered an opinion held by Lisa Delpit that teachers should recognize and build on a student's strengths. This is something I believe in 100%, and an idea that I discovered for myself fairly recently.

When I started my education beyond High School I ended up in  a private school majoring in Biology. It definitely wasn't my calling in life, but I wanted to take the route I was supposed to take, even if it meant working extra hard at concepts that I just couldn't really connect with, no matter what I tried. I eventually chose to leave that school to figure out what was truly right for me - and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I learned that I was following a path that didn't play to my strengths, and as a result I would have spent my life working extra hard and never reaching my potential.

The logic of this actually made sense to me when I came across Tom Rath's Strengthsfinder. This is a book and online personality test meant to reveal your personal strengths. It doesn't speak at all to your weaknesses, because those shouldn't matter. It shouldn't be your focus. The idea here is that if you are strong at something you're going to see 10x the results with half the effort. This isn't to say that knowing your limitations doesn't have it's value, but if math doesn't make sense to you, and you just can't connect with the concepts, you're obviously going to have a tough time following an academic path based in it.  That's not to say that you couldn't find success easily, but you'll be in a classroom with people who just seem to effortlessly get it. You could put in the hours, the focus and the effort to catch up and be as good or even better - but what if you instead focused that energy on something you were already good with?

I've talked before how I believe that exposure to all subjects is good, but overexposure becomes a problem. There is a fine balance when dealing with children - because they often don't know what's best for them or what their strengths are, but that's where we come in. It's our job as educators to help students find their ways, to recognize their hidden or budding talents, and to give them the tools and direction to be successful with what comes out of them. We are mentors and developers, and if we want to see success grow from the students we teach, we must help them figure out what that success may be to them.