It is interesting to see a school prepare for a production, it is the environment where the phrase ‘practice makes perfect’ is likely to be heard.
We think that well used, and well worn phrases like that are right, and we should be encouraging the next generation. Unfortunately, the phrase is wrong.
Perfect - is it ever achievable or fully understood? Wrong practice will never make any good headway.
Perhaps a better way of explaining to people ‘practice makes perfect’ would be to use a phrase like ‘good practice makes us better.’
This makes more sense to more people, I suspect. If I do something the right way more often, I’ll get better at it. If we explain to our students the right way to do something and encourage them to keep having a go, they will get better at it.
The Apostle Paul adds another dimension to this idea.
““Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” ”
He tells the people in the church in Philippi to practice what they have seen him do and heard him say. Paul wanted to be a role model for other Christians, and he set a standard so high, he was able to encourage others to imitate him.
Our young people will often ‘practice’ what they see us do. As significant adults in the lives of our students, we have the responsibility, like the Apostle Paul, to show them how to live or do something so they can see what it looks like and how they can get there.
Good practice = what they see us do and how we tell them to do it and repeating it.
Better = Our young people can see they would be better by practising what we are telling/showing them.
We can set our students up for success by modelling and explaining the phrase:
Good practice makes us Better
Scott Winkler — Principal