Pearls: Bring a good attitude

EDITORIAL MUG: Matt Pearl

These past few days have marked the beginning of an important time of the year: the ‘Back-to-School shopping season.’

No help from Santa on this one, folks. Watch for sales, maybe catch a ta-free weekend and I hope for the best.

So this little inquiry will get me in trouble with elementary teachers everywhere, but I have to ask it: Why do you all hate Trapper Keepers so much? Is it the Velcro sound? Why have teachers for years vetoed the single greatest assignment and supply organizer ever produced by the Mead Corporation? I don’t get it. But that isn’t my purpose in addressing you today.

While we tote our supply lists around this store and that, wondering if it’s really a big deal whether our kids’ pencils are Ticonderoga brand or not, I’d like to offer another back-to-school list for you, one that won’t cost you a dime and might just save you a few dollars down the road.

I know my peril in saying so, but I must speak the truth:

A kid who comes to school with 1 ½ pencils, half an eraser, no folders and an outgrown pair of gym shoes BUT possesses the right attitude and approaches learning constructively will succeed far more than the kid who has every single school supply as listed BUT brings no sense of purpose or positivity to school.

That’s right. A fancy backpack of supplies can be pretty exciting to a kid, and I would never encourage anyone to give up the feeling of the perfect, fully loaded, first-day-of-school backpack. But I will tell you that the attitude of the kid pushing the pencil is a better indicator of future success that the brand name printed on the side of said pencil.

It’s the same at every level of education: function beats form, and it isn’t even close. Your kids have had (or will have) teachers whose classrooms appear chaotic at certain moments – and a teacher who gets kids excited about learning has earned the right to a messy desk, from my perspective.

We’ve all seen it go the other way, haven’t we? We have seen the teacher who had every supply in order, every surface of the classroom immaculate, but who couldn’t get a kid energized if his or her life depended on it, I’ll take clutter over perfection any day, if student enthusiasm is at stake.

So my advice doesn’t hinge on whether your kid’s gym shoes are new or hand-me-downs, if his pencils are wooden or mechanical, or whether or not her folders are alphabetized. My experience has taught me a few things I wish every parent would add to the school supply list. Here goes:

Teach your kids to talk to adults. When grown-ups ask them questions, make them answer – rather than you answering for them. Being a responsive individual able to answer questions (and ask them) will do more for your kids than a dozen perfectly sharpened pencils.

Teach them how to be gracious. Make them use Please and Thank you on a regular basis. That’s everything from the birthday gift from Grandma to that bowl of broccoli at the dinner table. Courtesy wins in the educational setting, and in life.

Water is cheap, and so is soap. Make your kids put both to use regularly.

Make plans for them. Show them how you use a schedule, or put dates into your phone, or whatever you do to plan for the near future. By doing so, you’re teaching them how to use a planner, how to respect deadlines and how to see today’s work in the context of tomorrow’s due dates and expectations.

This one might seem obvious, but teach them that a bathroom emergency is a perfectly legitimate reason to run to the facilities. No hand need be raised, no slowpoke walking encouraged. Get there and save yourself from embarrassment.

But most importantly, teach them to be purposeful in their actions. If you pick up a pencil, take the effort to write something thoughtful, using your best penmanship. If you put on those gym shoes, run your best and fastest.

And when you tear up that flap on your rebel Trapper Keeper, and the Velcro rips and your teacher rolls her eyes, make it worthwhile. Put those papers in folders, pens in the pouch and make the most of that education you’re getting.

Matt Pearl owns and operates The Tri-County Ledger.