From chapter 6 of her book ‘Teaching to Build Faith’, Kathy K. Clayton teaches: For the start of this series, click . . .
Educators talk of the ideal learning level as “Competence Plus One,” meaning that a wise teacher offers their students familiar, mastered material, plus a little bit more. The wisdom of the concept is clear. Preserving some familiar curriculum builds student confidence, while introduction of new material promotes growth. A similar formula could serve as a useful guide for parents. Parents are wise to seek to build in their children the confidence that comes from success experiences even as they encourage growth by gently extending boundaries. (p,84)
. . . . Both parents and teachers can minimize the probability of wrongdoing by briefing children and students in advance regarding the likely experiences and temptations they might face. Visualizing, discussing, and role-playing potentially challenging situations in advance, and scripting solid, appropriate responses is enormously empowering. (p.86)
. . . . “Plus One” Learning Involves Creating Opportunities to Cultivate Worthy Appetites. Sometimes the “plus one” comes in the form of exposure to opportunities and options young people would not even know to desire. One family of six formed a family museum club. Together they searched the Internet for listings of appropriate art exhibits near their home that they could study and attend together. When we joined them on a family outing to a traveling exhibit at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, we were impressed by their children’s intelligent, informed pleasure viewing those challenging, beautiful works of art. Beginning when the children were very young, with a “competence plus one” measure as their guide, those parents had exposed their children to lovely cultural things and cultivated an appetite in them that might have otherwise remained undeveloped. Perhaps those children resisted the outings initially simply as a result of their unfamiliarity. The fact that they were always included in the process of planning the excursions contributed to their acquiescence. The preparation the family did in advance to ready the children for the outings provided them an initial competence. Their personal responses during the outings were the “plus one.” (p.89)
A group of six young mothers organized a music appreciation class for their four-year-old-boys. Those energetic little music lovers gravitated immediately to happy lyrics and rhythms and noisy homemade instruments. Gradually, in a “plus one” way, the mothers stretched the boundaries of those little guys’ appetites for more sophisticated music as they exposed them to and taught them about symphony orchestras, Broadway musicals, and jazz classics.
The growth and progress that a “competence plus one” encourages in secular things can be duplicated relative to personal spiritual growth as well. Deliberate capture of opportunities to engage in meaningful conversation with students or children is an important way to review and plan for steady “plus one” progress. We experienced the wonder of a daily check-in and check-up with our children beginning when they were young. At the end of almost every day, sometimes wearily but always with determination, we sat for a few minutes at the side of each child’s bed, waiting for each to consider in the semidarkness of his room the answer to the ritualistic nightly request, “Tell me all the things you’ve done today.” Over the years, we heard sweet recollections of meaningful firsts, tender confessions of childlike regrets, and thoughtful perceptions of right and wrong. Those children were reviewing with me the events of their day in meaningful ways almost as soon as they could talk. They relived with pleasure the happy, satisfying investments of time. They also committed aloud their determination to eliminate or adjust the wasted or poorly spent moments. The factual details of the review constituted the “competence” part. The plans for the repetition of positive things and the remaking of regrettable ones constituted the “plus one.” ~Kathy K. Clayton, Teaching to Build Faith and Faithfulness (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012). 84-89
