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15 Adar 5762 - February 27, 2002 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Home and Family
PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
Total Perfection? Or is `Good' Good Enough?

by R' Zvi Zobin

Eli is getting high nineties in his tests. He is well behaved, intelligent and studious. But sometimes he makes spelling mistakes. He also makes occasional mistakes when he reads, though his accuracy is definitely above average. But Eli is not perfect.

Because of the spelling errors, Eli's rebbe recommended that he go to an educational psychologist for evaluation. To help Eli achieve total accuracy in his reading, Eli's principal recommended that he go to a reading specialist. Eli's mother took him to a doctor who suggested she take him to a physiotherapist. The physiotherapist looked at the way Eli bounced a ball and told his mother that even though Eli could bounce the ball better than she (the physiotherapist), there was definitely room for improvement. She recommended a course of therapy.

Eli's mother told me the above scenario last night. She is worried because Eli is now beginning to demand from himself total perfection and he feels upset with himself when he makes mistakes.

Eli has already completed a course of remediation and his reading has improved beyond recognition. However, it was not yet 100% accurate. The remediator knew that but felt that the extra effort needed to achieve further improvement would not be `cost effective.'

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Any type of remediation or therapy is invasive. Apart from the financial cost, the parents and the child are paying other costs. The parent is having to take the child to the remediator; perhaps he has to take him out of school and even pressure the child to cooperate. The child is losing time which he could spend doing other activities, with his peers, which might also be beneficial to him -- perhaps more valuable than the amount of improvement the remediation might effect. The child might also be losing positive self image and there is risk of other negative side effects which can come from over-pressuring a child.

At first, the negative effects of the poor reading (or whatever) are so great, it is worthwhile suffering these costs and risking possible side effects. However, as remediation progresses, each session will effect less improvement and there is the likelihood that parent-child- remediator pressures will increase. So you will achieve diminishing returns for your efforts and `pay' more and get less.

So the remediator felt that Eli had reached the point at which attempting to effect further improvement might do more damage than the good the improvement might effect.

The question is whether a lack of perfection is to be labeled as a critical problem which must be dealt with. There are some activities for which 100% is essential. If Eli is a jet pilot or a brain surgeon, then his work would need total precision and accuracy. However, Eli is a ten-year-old boy doing 6th grade school work, and well.

At that age, Eli should have ample time for playing and enjoying life. Over-stressing his neurological system at this age can sow the seeds for many physical, mental and emotional problems in later life and also affect the way he will relate to his own children.

Each of the `experts' in the above scenario mean the best for Eli. They are genuinely concerned that Eli's lack of perfection will impair his chances of being successful when he grows up.

 

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