Teaching Excellence in Schoolwork and Other Critical Skills

"Tricking" Kids into Self-Discovery

My best friend, John Matau, was an amazing teacher! He was a master at "tricking" kids into self-discovering positive ideas about themselves. Here is just one example of his amazing skill as a teacher that you may be able to imitate as you work with your own kids.

Almost every year, John would have what he called his "Cheater's Test" in his U.S. history classes. He would announce to his classes that, on the upcoming chapter test, he was going to challenge everyone to figure out a way to cheat and not get caught.

He laid out the rules very carefully. "You can cheat on this test, and if you get away with it, you get the score you get. However, if you get caught, it will be no different from other tests: you will receive a zero. But, unlike other tests, if you get caught cheating, you will be able to take the test again the next day! Then, you'll have to live with whatever score you get on the second test the next day! I will not call you a cheater and you will not go to the office or receive any negative consequences for cheating other than having to take the test a second time.”

So that the kids could prepare, John told the students exactly what would happen on the day of the ‘cheater’s test’! John would tell his students, "On test day, you will have exactly 55 minutes to complete the test. During the test, I will leave the room one time. I will be gone for exactly 30 seconds. The rest of the time, I will sit at my desk and read a book, except for three times when I will get up and walk around the room. Get creative! On the 'Cheater's Test,' if you don't get caught cheating, you get to keep your score!

Test Day

On test day, it was amazing to watch what the creativity of the kids. Excitement would be at a fever pitch throughout the school as the kids tried to match wits with John and outdo each other with their schemes. What was interesting was that the kids who hooked in on this opportunity the most were usually kids who were failing or close to it! Some would have friends in the gym reading the answers on a walkie-talkie, with three students sitting in class listening on earphones hidden behind long hair. Others would have the answers written on the bottom of their shoes. Others would have elaborate mechanisms that would retract the cheat sheet into their sleeve when they straightened their arm. Groups would get together and hide answers around the room on the backs of lights and on bulletin boards. Some would put the answers on the front of John's desk. Their creative minds were hard at work!

The Day After the Test

The day after the "Cheater's Test," John would give the test again, as planned, for any kids who had been caught cheating. He asked everyone else to please take the test because he just wanted to see what happened. Everyone would take the test a second time, not just the ones who had been caught cheating. He even told them that if they scored higher today they could keep the higher score. When John gave the test the second day, the scores would almost universally average in the 80's and 90's ! Even kids who had never passed a test in their lives would get 94's and 88's.

The Lesson about Studying

The self-discovery would begin when John would point out something to his classes. "Kids, you learned something today. Many of you scored higher than you've ever scored on a test in your life, and today you did it without cheating. Do you know how you did that? Well, for yesterday's test, you had to make up your elaborate cheat sheets. In order to do that, you had to actually look up the answers to what you thought would be on the test and write them down! Many of you even wrote the answers two or three times as you perfected your cheating schemes."

"Now look at what you did today! You scored very highly on today's test with nothing but what you stored in your head by looking up the answers and writing them down. What you did while preparing to cheat is what many people call STUDYING! You did what many students who get good grades do before a test. It wasn't very hard was it? It also didn't take much time, either, did it?"

Learning about Success from an Experience of Succeeding

"Now recall what it felt like to take this test today and score highly. Pretty cool huh? Why don't you do that all the time, since you just demonstrated to yourself that you can do it"?

John had just tricked many kids into saying some pretty positive things to themselves about their own performance capabilities. The key is that he got them to "say it for themselves" after giving them a graphic experience with their own performance. (For more suggestions about how to do this, click here.)

Duplicate this Opportunity to Learn for Your Children

There are many ways that you could creatively "trick" your children into doing something around the home that will demonstrate to them what they are capable of doing on their own. For example you might let one of your kids plan and cook a dinner. Give them some money and let them plan the meal totally on their own. Give them only limited guidance or restrictions other than telling the child that the meal must have a selection from each of three food groups to insure that it is healthy. Include the fact that they can keep any money not spent on the groceries for dinner! When they plan and cook the meal point out to them that they have just budgeted and saved money by careful shopping and planning!

Let a child plan an entire trip from start to finish. When the trip is in progress make comments about the successful planning that has been done and how fun it is to be in charge of travel plans. (During that trip you most likely will not have to answer the question of, "When are we going to get there?" By letting kids feel like they are somehow getting away with something they can learn a ton about their own capabilities.