expectations

Teachers care deeply, and we might feel disappointed if we don’t see improvement from our students. But our experience with a student is limited to an hour a week: our focus is on improvement in a very small facet of someone’s life. Our expectations can be unreasonable.

In order not to become demanding and severe, a good teacher should keep their expectations low, and think: “James has been at school all week, it’s a miracle he’d pick up the guitar.”
This way, we become much more open to tiny yet significant improvements.

Of course, keeping our expectations fruitfully low doesn’t mean we become careless with our teaching. A good maxim might be: high standards, low expectations.