Early correctives are so much more effective than late ones.
It’s the beginning of the year/semester/trimester/quarter. Now is the time to make gentle correctives. A small, gentle corrective of a student in the early weeks can profoundly affect their trajectory. A much bigger correction at the end of term will have a much smaller effect.
Think about this. If you begin a 10 mile hike with a small stone in your show, you are bound to have a blister at the end. If you took it out at mile 9, it would be too late – the blister would be almost fully formed. But if you stopped after 200 yards and removed the stone, you’d have prevented the blister. That small action had big consequences – and preventing a blister at mile 9 would either take massive efforts or be simply impossible.
We are often afraid to make corrections early on. We want our students to learn on their own – to fall, learn from the fall, and eventually succeed. I want that.
But with carefully placed correctives, our students can head more directly toward success, and then have their own failures and successes along the right path.
Think of it one other way. If I aimed my compass for 5º instead of 6º, it would seem like no big deal. But if I walked those 10 miles in that direction, I would end up almost two tenths of a mile away from my intended destination. Is it better to point the way when you have to walk an extra 1,000 feet, or when you can simply turn your body slightly? Wouldn’t you appreciate that early nudge?