Back in May, our niece from California graduated from the University of Iowa, so her family stayed at our house for a few days pre and post graduation. As is the case in most households, having company means cleaning things and rooms that aren’t usually included on the regular schedule. While there is a bathroom on the main floor in a spare room addition, the shower hasn’t been used for over a year. One of my jobs was to clean the stools, sinks, and showers. I left the spare room bathroom for last . . I cleaned the sink, the stool and then turned my attention to the shower. Hmmm . . . water to the sink, water to the stool . . . no water coming out of the shower. I checked all of the water shut-offs and everything was as it should be. Too late to call a plumber, since everyone was arriving that night! We got through the week of company by using other showers and things returned to normal. No hurry in figuring out what was wrong with the shower, right?  Wrong . . my wife announces that  a good friend is coming from out East […]

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