When Giving Up Is A Great Strategy

I was always taught to never give up.

It comes from my being the son of immigrants who survived World War II, two years in a refugee camp and coming to Canada penniless.

They always told me there was no problem that can’t be solved.

Winston Churchill’s famous quote “Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense” reinforced it.

It’s how I got through 29 years of classroom teaching.

Never give up is my mantra.

But, there are times you have to give up.

You have to throw in the towel.

You have to admit defeat.

It’s painful, but it needs to be done in order to move forward.

As I walked out in my backyard to think about my skunk problem, I was confronted by another problem.

It started small.

I thought it would go away.

But, it just grew and grew and grew.

What started off as a small patch of Creeping Charlie or ground ivy was too big to go unnoticed.

Now it covers most of my lawn.

It’s my fault. I let things go out of hand. I was too busy working on other things, too busy to notice the little things.

Seems like I’m not the only one.

I ran into an expert with the same problem.
I asked him if I could solve the problem by spraying.

“Nope”, he said.

I asked him if I could solve the problem by fertilizing my grass more.

He said, “Nope”, again.

What about planting more grass to overpower the weed?

He just shook his head.

He told me he had the same problem for 8 years.

The solution is to rip it out.

Cut out that patch and start again.

Throw in the towel and admit defeat.

Great thing about teaching, is you don’t have to wait 8 years to solve a problem.

You can wait and start all over again every year with a brand new class.

You can get your class back on track after a new term.

You can get your class back after the weekend.

My How To Make A Difference: Inspiring Students To Do Their Best eBook shows you how.

It’s available here:
http://www.thebusyeducator.com/classroom-management.htm

Find out how to get your class back on track.

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