Too Much of a Good Thing
By Allen A. Raymond, Publisher

I'm not sure of the grade I was in – maybe first grade – but I vividly remember the first day the teacher had us practice our penmanship – probably the Palmer Method. I'd sit at my desk, my arm and hand positioned "just so," the pencil held carefully between my thumb and forefinger.

If you're old enough, you probably remember the routine. The challenge was to create sort of a coil of concentric circles, drawn in one continuous line. Once completed, it would look like a coiled spring. I practiced and practiced as my arm moved slowly across the paper from left to right.

Wanting to do it perfectly, because this was a new environment and I didn't want the teacher and kids to think I was dumb, I worked very hard. In fact, I went over it again and again, filling in the space between the lines. I was so proud; it was really good...and really black.

When the teacher asked us to show our work, I held my paper high… and the kids laughed. I think it caught the teacher by surprise, because I don't remember that she was very helpful.

As I look back on that incident, which was crushingly embarrassing and has stuck with me for a long, long time, it probably helped me in future years, because I had learned a lesson; too much of a good thing is – well, too much.

I had a similar experience when I became owner of my first sailboat. I'd worked hard delivering newspapers, while, at the same time begging my parents to give me money for my birthday and for Christmas. They couldn't afford to buy a sailboat outright, but they could help. And they did.

It was a used boat, and needed paint. We put it on sawhorses in the yard, and I went to work. I had never painted a boat before and, in fact, had probably never painted much of anything. As I spread the paint on the boat's sides, I was amazed at how easy it was. The boat was beautiful and I was so proud.

After the paint dried a bit, I gave the boat a second coat. To my untrained eye, it looked even better.

In the morning, however, I was shocked to discover the paint had run or sagged, and there were little waves or rivulets of paint running across what had been the beautiful sides of my boat. That was when I again learned that too much of a good thing is – well, too much.

Many of you know that over the years I have raced sailboats a lot. It is a challenging sport, and we who try to win races are challenged all the time as we deal with tides, wind shifts and old boats that are not competitive.

In every race, we're being tested but, in the long run, it doesn't matter if we win or lose. Everyone knows we're doing our best and no one is going to kick a losing skipper out of the weekly competition simply because he or she finishes in last place.

I've often thought it would be a happy place if schools were like sailboat races where, no matter our "score," everyone knows we're doing our best. But, as schools turn inexorably to what appears to be a mammoth commitment to tests and more tests, I have the sinking feeling we're going to discover that too much of a good thing is – well, too much.

Allen Raymond is the Editor/Publisher for Teaching Pre K-8.

November/December 2003, Vol.34, No.3