Trust

My kids take two “cold FRQs” every week. They take a past FRQ on their own and then grade their own as I talk them through the scoring guideline. Then I show them the average from that year. And then we do it again with a second FRQ. And that takes basically the whole hour.

I’ve said it before but I felt the need to explain again today that the point of seeing the average is not to compare; actually quite the opposite. The reason I show the averages is so students get a more realistic goal in their minds. (“Oh 6 out of 9 points is actually really good!”)

I told them comparison is so toxic. “You’re not competing against your neighbor. You’re not even competing against this average. You’re just trying to improve—just a little bit each time. If on the first one you were a bit under the average, see if you can get closer to the average on the second one. It’s not a competition.”

Some days it’s so hard to read a room full of masks. But today wasn’t one of those days. Today I had them. They nodded that sincere nod that I swear only teenagers can accomplish. The room was calm. In that moment, in just a split second, I felt it. The air held this message of We trust you to take us where we need to go and we respect you enough to do what you tell us we need to do to get there.

No one said anything. I just felt it.

We belong to each other.