Skip to main content

Saying "I Don't Know"

I was teaching piano to a child a few weeks ago when the child started panicking and being distressed when she kept on making mistakes or couldn't play something. When I assured her that everyone makes mistakes - even me! - she refused to believe me saying, "But teachers never make mistakes." 

I was surprised, to say the least, and then after the lesson, I thought back to when I was a child, and what my perception of adults, teachers and parents were. I remember thinking that adults had life sorted out, they had an answer to every question, and that one day, I would be like them. Never did I have a question to which they didn't have an answer for, whether or not their answer truly answered my question or not. No one ever said the words, "You know what, Jason? I don't know." 

This, in itself, manifests a huge problem for children growing up with incorrect expectations of other  people and ultimately, themselves as they get older, and strive for that perfection. People nowadays always seem to must have an opinion on something, or must have a solution to a problem. Are people just afraid to admit that maybe they do not know? Or maybe they don't really have an opinion? 

Social media certainly worsens the issue, with everyone having the same platform to voice their opinions on sensitive topics. And it's hard to tell whether they're serious or just trolls and whether they are qualified or not to speak about it. 

Adults need to be less fearful of not knowing the answer all the time, accepting that maybe you don't hold the answer to whether the UK should get involved in the US attack on Syria, or whether the newly imposed 'sugar tax' in the UK will have the desired effect or not. Teachers as well, must make it explicit to their pupils, that they themselves are not perfect, and that human error happens very, very frequently, even with the professionals. Mistakes are part of life, and that is how we learn. So keep on making mistakes!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Social Media and Our Perception of Success and Failure

Go on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. and try and find a post or picture of someone depicting a positive aspect of their life, whether it's them on an expensive holiday, having a nice time with all their friends smiling, or perhaps a post about some success in their work or academic life. It probably won't be long, scrolling through, before you find one, or several. Now try and find one that depicts a less positive aspect of someone's life. Perhaps showing how lonely they are, how they failed their exam, got fired from work, are eating simple and cheap food etc. It will no doubt be much harder, if not near impossible to find. Why? No one wants to show people the boring and rubbish parts of their life, but instead want to show everyone how good their lives are: how happy they are, how successful they are, how rich they are, how life is just so perfect! No one posts their failures. It's obvious, isn't it? It's completely natural that people want to be perce...
Post a Comment
Read more

Just Do It

Read as much as you want. Plan as much as you want.  Edit as much as you want.  Prepare as much as you. Wait as long as you need.  Or Just do it.  Start before you think you're ready. Anything worth doing is worth doing badly. "We have two lives, and the second begins when we realise we only have one." - Confucius 
Post a Comment
Read more

Mental Health

As written by a friend on Facebook: I have seen a lot of the  # itsokaynottobeokay  movement across my news feed recently and I think it raises some issues worth talking about.  This movement has been successful in getting general attention for what is a pertinent issue that needs to be thought and talked about well.  I think it’s important, however, that this doesn’t simply develop into a trend in which people copy and paste the same text, statistics, and pose. This movement is trying to raise real awareness about young people who lose their lives to suicide or are, perhaps, at risk of losing their lives because of the degree to which they suffer in them.  Evidently, I don’t and can’t see the thought process that goes on behind every post but, going by what I see, I ask: where is there real awareness shown in copying and pasting? Aren’t we meant to be showing this is something we’re willing to talk about, something we personally understand and...
1 comment
Read more