2 years ago

ACCEPT LIFE'S CHALLENGE!
"Keep Right with Ralph K. Ginorio"

We adults have a duty to encourage young people to accept life's challenge! By our example, we can model how to boldly face obstacles as they come. Or we can shirk our duty and instead demonstrate how to cravenly pursue peace at any price.

Teens understand that they need to develop courage if they want to achieve their dreams. Whatever their personal gifts and inherited legacies, each teen knows that he or she must ultimately face adulthood’s challenges.

Healthy teens embrace opportunities to hone their wits and test themselves authentically. The false self-esteem-building advocated by mediocrities posing as child development experts offers nothing of value to the teen. Adult reality is not graded on a curve.

Failure is a necessary component in such growth. There is no better teacher. It helps us to identify our weaknesses and to either eliminate or compensate for them.

Wisdom and compassion only come from experiencing failure. It reminds us that we are each fallible human beings. Failure teaches us empathy.

Teens are as averse to defeat as are adults. What many adults forget is that there is no alternative to risking failure if one wishes to succeed. Teens are more consistently willing to take risks.

A worthwhile education gives students opportunities to take certain risks, try to perform under pressure, and then cope with both failure and success. Good schools do not remove all obstacles from the lives of their students. They structure challenges where students can be instructed to learn bravery, overcome hardship, practice skills and build resilience.

Though pride only comes from accomplishment, well-meaning experts have for decades tried to bestow unearned self-esteem upon children as a gift. In doing so, they have created generations of brittle youth whose natural inclinations have been undermined by too much coddling.

Young people whose self-confidence has been stunted in this fashion are prone to hysterical desperation. Fear of being put on the spot can spark intolerance for spontaneous social interactions and impartial meritocracy.

Teenagers should be saved from those who would rob them of the struggles that they need in order to grow. They should be given rich opportunities to learn humility through failure and courage through success. Most of all, they need to discover that they are capable; that they each have the toughness to endure failure and the wit to capitalize on success.

By practicing how to fight for their dreams, each student can conclude that refusing to try is usually worse than failure. Schools should be restored as training grounds where students develop successful habits of accepting life's challenges.

***
In Maine and then Idaho, Ralph K. Ginorio has taught the history of Western Civilization to High School students for nearly a quarter century. He is an “out-of-the-closet” Conservative educator with experience in Special Education, Public Schools, and Charter Schools, Grades 6-12. He has lived in Coeur d’Alene since 2014.

Loading comments...