Teacher Urges Peers Not To Accept Students' Excuses

Laura Klein writes at the New York Times (12/20, Subscription Publication) "Schoolbook" blog that teachers often "focus a lot on accommodating our student's needs" because "it's our job to teach them no matter what" special needs or obstacles they may have. "But to truly help them be successful, we ourselves have to embody the 'no excuses' attitude. The problem is that by allowing ourselves no excuses, and doing whatever it takes to make students successful, we often find ourselves accepting excuses from them. ... The real work is in figuring out where exactly to draw the line between accommodation and empowerment." Klein argues that being too quick to dismiss a student's inappropriate behavior or low performance as inevitable because of an outside factor risks "crippling" that child.