I’ve set the bar high, maybe too high for my youngest students. At the same time, I need to make sure that the experience of the class is positive and edifying. Here is the problem – high expectations require students to struggle and work. Many rise to the challenge, others, for various reasons, struggle and stop. We need to practice the mindset that will enable a student to struggle and persevere.

Here is what I have in mind: have students pick a task they think they cannot do. I will start with a list of increasing difficulty and have students pick the level they think they CAN’T do.

Then we need to get them to do it.

I can then coach this as ‘completing the impossible’ or something uplifting like that. I want to teach students that something might look impossible or ‘too hard’ but they can still do it.

My high bar is lowering the hopes of some students. I need to teach them to see it differently.