As a child grows, and indeed any of us grow, we need to raise the bar of our performance and standards. Being stagnant casues boys to become complacent, and more vulnerable to the vices of lethargy and complacency. For boys who are sanguine or phlagmatic in temperment, I also find relaxing the controls too early causes them to not stay on course before their minds mature with a growth of self control. For melencholic and cholarics temperments, their built in sense of justice mandates all people should make the same grade to get equal rewards. So as we approached the Board of Review this year we did two things, raised the expectations and increased the feedback to the boys on their preparation levels.
In February we informed the boys passing was 90% not 80%. Since this was the second year, they had to pick up the expectation level. We also kept checking up on the boys with their parents. In my own family, I kept increasing the speed expectations of answers. This way the boys earned it. While easy for the melencholic, it was painful for my sanguine…until he began to feel the pride of accomplishment. The melencholic in my house had to learn compassion and how to lay off sarcasm for those who struggled, while embracing the natural enthusiasm of the resident sanguine.
These were good lessons for boys boys and fathers this year. It is the epit
omy of the lesson my father taught me long ago: “Son I love you all the same, just differently.” Sounds like he heard the echo of lessons of God the Father, and spoke them aloud to me.
It is with great pleasure to announce all Blue Knights passed and earned their official stripes and bars with performances which left last year in the dust!
-ehw
St Michael's Blue Knights 