"They're Going to Call You A Lazy Mexican"
Dave Price
Here's an amazing NPR story about a Native American principal who turned around a charter school in Oakland by (surprise) emphasizing academic performance and discipline instead of "traditional" music and art and feel-good ego-building exercises. Dr. Chavis blasts multiculturalism and says the philosophy is destroying minorities' ability to succeed in America.
Rather than trying to make the students feel good about being minorities, he demands they work hard and explains in no uncertain terms what will happen if they fail. His results seem to prove the prevailing philospohy is badly misguided: shame and fear can serve a purpose, and self-esteem is a means, not an end.
(via Ace)
But you do need to have the fundamentals down first and foremost.
I'm relatively smart, but have always been a very lazy student, from first grade through college.
I knew kids who'd been held back because of failing grades. The parents had no say in the matter. You failed enough subjects, you were held back. It was quite a stigma. If you failed just a couple, you went to summer school. Again, a stigma.
My family made sure i understood this.
I always managed to just pass every year.
If that threat had not been real, i hate to think how easily i would have managed to slide through without learning anything of substance.
I think that would have hurt my self-esteem much more in the long run.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.