When I’m trying to get a piece of work out the door, I can often be heard muttering to myself “Perfect is the enemy of done.” Because the urge to fuss, and edit, and polish until not a blemish can be seen is absolutely fatal to the need to get something finished. I know that, but I often need reminding. Because I am a perfectionist at heart.
My kids (and, when I was a teacher, my students) were apt to focus on the points lost rather than their achievements whenever their work was marked. Even a mark of 98 could lead to kids obsessing over the lost two. We might badger those kids into focussing on what matters, and getting some perspective. We might complain that they are perfectionists, as though it is some essential character flaw, but that is to miss the point, which is this:
WE HAVE TAUGHT THEM THAT PERFECT IS WHAT MATTERS.
How have we done that? From the early years of schooling we mark their work as right or wrong. Right gets full marks. Wrong gets nothing. Occasionally we have “consequential marking” were doing the right thing along the way gets you some marks, even if you get the wrong answer in the end, but the marks are still awarded for correctness. Perfectly correct gets perfect marks.
Marks are taken off for spelling mistakes. For calculation mistakes. For the wrong formula, the wrong process, the wrong term, or the wrong definition. Marks are awarded for memorising the right process, the right term, the right definition, the right spelling.
Assessment sends a clear signal to our kids about what we value, and they can see, more clearly than we can, perhaps, that what we value is right answers.
What if, instead, we taught them to solve real problems – which don’t have right or wrong answers, or perfect solutions – and then, instead of marking them right or wrong, reward them for critically evaluating their own work? For telling us where their solutions work, and where they don’t. For telling us who their solutions help, and who they harm. What if we taugt them that there is no such thing as perfect work, but that value lies in being able to figure out how your work is not perfect. In thinking about how it could be improved. In being able to articulate the pros and cons of any solution – including your own – to a problem.
So instead of rewarding black and white thinking, and encouraging our kids to pick a side and double down defensively when it’s challenged, we reward thoughtful, insightful critique, and the ability to consider all sides of an issue.
When I talked about this idea in my keynote at PyconAU recently, it really struck a chord with the audience.
Imagine a world where you are free to come up with creative solutions and then evaluate them, assuming that they have flaws. Where spotting issues with your work brings reward rather than punishment. Where taking risks and being creative is rewarded, as long as you can show that you have thought through the implications of your work.
Imagine the difference it would make to the world if we were taught that problems are complicated, and messy, and don’t have perfect solutions. That our work is always flawed, and there is value in figuring out what the flaws are. That the most important thing is not to get the right answer, but to be able to critically evaluate your answers, and explain why they’re not perfect.
Just pause for a moment and consider the difference it might make to the world if we didn’t learn we had to be perfect. If we learned we had to be thoughtful instead. If we learned that nothing is perfect, even our own work, and everything needs to be critically evaluated.
Imagine the world this could create!
You can help build that world by buying a copy of Raising Heretics: Teaching Kids to Change the World (or buy several for your kids’ teachers!), donating via givenow.com.au/adsei/, and by volunteering to help.