Words of wisdom from Bella (not her real name), a 12 year old young lady who had severe apraxia,  offered to the graduate speech pathology student who was working with her during a summer intensive therapy program. The graduate student had made a well-meaning comment about Bella’s variable sound production errors, to which Bella responded, “Nobody be perfect.” Profound and relevant.

Why the pursuit of perfection? Are those of us who strive for perfection in the product missing something that was right there in the process? Does commenting only on “perfection” guarantee long lasting learning? I think not!

Do we miss “moments of brilliance” and “connection” by focusing on the answer given in the teacher’s manual or to our preconceived “correct” response, instead of being open to any answer and being able to connect the dots between where we “are” and where the student’s response “is”?

I wonder what would happen if we were more mind ”full” of what “is” . . and mind “less” of what “isn’t”? Would we see the perfection in each student’s thinking more often?

© 2010  Dave Krupke  All Rights Reserved