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On Following Instructions

My friend Gil Guillory told me this:

The best advice I ever got was from my father: people judge your intelligence by your ability to follow instructions.

I love that!

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  • Dan Feldman April 24, 2011, 12:17 pm

    As a teacher of adolescents for 22 years in Houston,TX I totally agree with this advice. I get huge resistance to directives stated in plain English. The consequence of such is very low grades. Students, parents, and yes…even principals, insist that I change my standards to meet the inability of my learners to meet deadlines, ‘complete the job’, follow rules, take responsibility for their own unsatisfactory performance and worst of all to maintain minimum civil (I’m not asking for polite!) behavior. A small percentage of my students (I’d estimate somewhere between 20 and 30%) have caught on to the idea that they are being prepared to go into the job market with some discipline with which to excel. I am somewhat pleased to learn that a few of my students have done just that, after becoming aware of the realities (unfortunately, later in the real world after bumping heads and stubbing toes) and have the courage to come back and tell me I was right. Thanks, I love this post, Dan

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