Positive reinforcement of success and failure is key to unlocking their innate ability to transcend adversity. By positively reinforcing failure as a means to be better or to challenge one's self to find a solution is in my opinion a key that will allow children's abilities to flourish. Teachers should always teach from a position of love and compassion towards their students. If students do not understand something, it is not their fault, but it is an opportunity for a teacher to learn new ways to reach those student. As educators our role should be to teach and to learn from our students, and it is in this dynamic ebb and flow where learning truly takes place.
Teaching is as much about learning as it is about helping others to learn.
By teaching from a point of view of love and compassion students learn that they are valued participants in the lives of teachers, who in turn will help those students enjoy school and the learning process. Patience is one of the fundamentals of good educators - patience not only with our students but with ourselves as teachers, realizing that students' perceptions of themselves are in many ways molded by the way teachers react to their students' ability to comprehend. In other words, if teachers react impatiently to their students' inability to grasp concepts, then those students will form their perceptions of themselves by that teacher's reactions. Educators who have patience with themselves will radiate patience to their students and those students will in turn realize that their ability or inability to comprehend a particular lesson is important not only to the teacher, but to themselves. Impatient teachers who make students feel as though there is something wrong with them because they do not understand are fostering subtle feelings of negative self worth.