Why Hard Lessons Are Good For Your Students

by Michael Linsin on November 10, 2012 6

So you’ve got this awesome science lesson planned.

The materials are all laid out. Your lab coat is hanging on a hook behind your desk. Your fake horned-rims are dangling conspicuously from the breast pocket.

Your students know they’re in for a cool learning experience, and all morning the classroom has been abuzz. Smartly, you scheduled the lesson for the afternoon.

The building of anticipation is fun and helps students appreciate these moments.

But inexplicably, when they return from lunch, they don’t seem so appreciative. It’s as if you’ve switched classes with the rowdies next door.

They enter the classroom noisily. They slouch chatty and unfocused in their seats. And when you give a direction, it’s loosely followed. You send them back to perform these routines over again, but still they persist.

It appears that, at this moment anyway, they’re taking you and the special classroom you’ve created for granted.

You glance over at your carefully arranged materials, your freshly pressed lab coat, your well-thought-out lesson plans . . . then up at the clock on the wall. It’s time for science to begin.

You ponder your options.

You could give a rousing lecture and express how disappointed you are. You could delay the lesson and reteach your rules and expectations. You could press on and hope the allure of the lesson will shake them from their apathy.

Or . . .

You could call off the lesson altogether.

Whether it’s canceling a cool science experiment, a special activity, a holiday party, or an outdoor learning game, hard lessons—those that profoundly disappoint students—can be the best medicine for your classroom.

Here’s why:

Your classroom is a two-way street.

Hard lessons send the message to your students that your classroom is a two-way street. You give your best for them. That’s a given. But the expectation is that they must give their best for you.

The most successful classrooms have a balanced teaching/learning relationship, with both parties feeling obligated and appreciative of the other. When this relationship becomes lopsided, often burdensomely weighted toward the teacher, complacency and entitlement arise.

Hard lessons remind students to appreciate their teacher and the remarkable classroom he or she has created, thereby restoring equilibrium in the relationship.

Excellence is expected.

When you let things go, when you accept less than what your students are capable of, in effect you’re telling them that mediocrity is okay, disrespect is tolerated, and half-efforts are acceptable.

When your first attempt at holding your class accountable (i.e., performing routines over again) is taken with a shrug, it’s a clear sign that something more drastic is in order.

Taking you or the classroom for granted is not okay and cannot be ignored. Hard lessons bring students back to reality, respect, and appreciation and make an unspoken but emphatic statement that excellence is expected.

It won’t happen again.

Hard lessons, both for individuals and whole classrooms, result in a humbler attitude more attuned and eager to make amends. If the disappointment is strong enough, students will bend over backwards not to make the same mistake twice.

They become sharper and quicker to listen and hop-to the direction you ask them. And the next time you have a similar lesson or activity, you’ll discover in your students a very different attitude.

After a hard lesson, they know that with you as their teacher there are no threats, no negotiations, and no second chances. Just action. And action alone, supported by the leverage of a classroom they enjoy being part of, sets fire under their feet.

An Enduring Lesson

Hard lessons are best left for your students to process on their own. So avoid explaining, lecturing, or trying to tell them how they should feel. Your words will only lessen the weightiness of the experience.

You can, however, make your actions more impactful.

Before making your announcement, go ahead and slip on your lab coat and nerdy glasses. Stand expectantly in front of your neat display of materials. Pause a moment until every eye is on you.

Speaking softly, say:

“Because of your behavior today—walking into class noisily, following directions poorly, side-talking—I’m canceling the science lesson.”

Then calmly take off your glasses and lab coat and place them both back inside the closet.

It only takes a moment.

But the lesson will stay with them long after you close the closet door.

Note: If the activity you’re cancelling is a lesson, it’s perfectly fine to teach it on another day.