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Expectations

When a person has put a limit on what he will do, he has put a limit on what he can do. (Charles Schwab)

If you expect the best, very often you'll get it.

Treat each learner as a unique individual with unique potential, whose limits only he or she will ultimately determine (adapted from guiding philosophy of indep. school district, Twin Cities, MN--Dr. Ruth Randall)

Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be. (Goethe)

Everyone needs to know what is expected of them. Expect people to be better than they are; it helps them to become better. But don't be disappointed when they are not; it helps them to keep trying. (Merry Browne)

At one time or another, we can all play both Pygmalion--the creator who strongly molds another--and the object of a Pygmalion. Conversely what others think about us and how they treat us does affect us. How we behave toward others has consequences for them and for us. These effects are consequences either positive or negative, but never neutral.(Wess Roberts, Straight A's Never Made Anybody Rich)

Your mental capabilities : One of the most alarming research projects every done in public education shows the danger of letting outside forces limit your expectations for learning achievement. In the 1960s a teacher was given a roster showing the actual I.Q. test scores of the students of one class, and for another class, a roster in which the I.Q. column had been filled in with the students' locker numbers. The teacher assumed that the locker numbers were the actual I.Q.'s of the students in the second class, and so did the students when the rosters were posted at the beginning of the semester. After a year it was discovered that in the first class the students with high actual I.Q. scores had performed better than those with low ones. But in the second class the students with higher locker numbers scored significantly higher than those with lower locker numbers!

If you were told you are dumb and let yourself believe it, you will perform accordingly. You will be victimized through your own low expectations, and if you convince others as well, then you are in double jeopardy. (Wayne Dyer)

Eisenhower had a high opinion of the potential of the common man. In 1967 he wrote: "In our Army, it was thought that every private had at least a Second Lieutenant's gold bars somewhere in him and he was helped and encouraged to earn them... I am inclined by nature to be optimistic about the capacity of a person to rise higher than he or she has thought possible once interest and ambition are aroused."

Teachers are similar to bosses: You rarely get to choose them; some are good and some are bad. And while you're subject to their authority, what they think of you really does matter. (Wess Roberts, Straight A's Never Made Anybody Rich)

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