My greatest accomplishment in 13 years of teaching is also one of my fundamental pursuits, namely, my commitment to establish and maintain high standards and Expectations for all students within my purview. Although I consider this my greatest accomplishment, I am aware that like our ideals and guiding principles, this is not something to be attained, then placed on a shelf, or checked off on a list of things to do.  I offer the following example to illustrate my point.

A recently transferred student of mine was not quite prepared for his first day in my class, or the high expectations for his performance. Having come to my class halfway through the third quarter, there were concepts already in place which the other students had mastered that he needed to master in order to succeed. When I explained that I could arrange for him to stay after school with me so that I could help him grasp the knowledge and skills he would need to complete his design he exploded, “how you gonna tell me that your gonna hold me after school just because I can’t draw a Straight line.” (I don’t think he realized that to tell an art teacher “I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler,” is essentially to throw down the gauntlet.)

Reflecting upon this event helped me identify the point of tension. He clearly felt that my expectations for him were too high while I believed his expectations for himself were too low. This became the impetus for my further reflection and perhaps more questions than answers. Were we using a common standard by which to measure our expectations? How do I as an educator reconcile student’s expectations, with my expectations? Do I accept the student’s standard and then lower the bar? Or, do I maintain my high expectations and work with each student until they succeed?

 Thomas Aquinas wrote, “The straight line rules both itself and the crooked line.” This simple statement has provided much needed guidance as I navigate these often difficult questions. C.S. Lewis reflecting on this wrote, “How could I know that a line is crooked unless I had some idea of a straight line? How do we recognize injustice, unless we have a former idea of what is just?” In the same way, to recognize the inferior and the superior, there must be a prior objective standard by which we may measure.

In essence it boiled down to two questions. What is the standard? And, what is its nature, relative, or absolute? If the standard was relative, then the answer would be simple, lower the bar and allow this student to “be successful in his own way” using what he could do at the moment as the standard. However, I don’t believe in the relative nature of standards; otherwise the status quo would be perfectly acceptable. In this particular case, the standard was that a perfectly healthy seventh grader should be able to draw a straight line using a ruler. Anything less would be unacceptable. As I considered his opinion, I realized that it was not because he could not draw a straight line with a ruler that I was going to keep him after school. It was precisely the opposite, it was because I believed he could draw a straight line with a ruler, I was willing to invest the time after school to work with this student.

Even if my student’s believe that they cannot accomplish a task, and have set low expectations for themselves, I am not willing to accept their low standard. I have a prior commitment to high expectations. This particular case illustrates a principal I have come to discover and embrace. It is often as we work through these points of tension, between high and low expectations, and are finally able find resolution that real, significant learning takes place.