Goal setting has been thoroughly discussed and taught in many formats for as long as I can remember. Successful people and especially leaders are usually quite able to set and carry out goals. So, I want to deviate and share something a little different and something which I am most concerned about at this present time. We are seeing such an underachievement syndrome pervading our schools in recent years that I have been reading and studying research that is taking place in the fields of education and psychology concerning this matter. Slow processing speed is becoming a major factor among many of today’s children. The Corona pandemic hasn’t helped at all. Many schools and educators just pass this problem off as a part of the ADHD crisis in our schools. Recognizing that slow processing speed in our technological world is a giant mismatch, I am setting some new goals for myself as a teacher of young children. My goals will include better communication with my students and parents when we are confronted with these executive skills causing underachievement among our students. It amazes me that throughout my life, God has placed certain people in my path who will have a direct influence upon me at some later time. Such a person was Dr. Sylvia Rimm whom I met at Asylimar, California, as part of a consortium for leaders of the gifted in the arts. Our meeting was more than thirty years ago, but her teachings came to me in a resounding way today as I considered setting goals for a couple of my students who have processing speed deficits. So, should Dr. Rimm run across the quote of her work below, please know that I hold your work in highest esteem and have looked to it to remind me of your “Rimm’s Laws,” which I consider most helpful in meeting the goal of helping students who are underachieving. I can recommend her book, Underachievement Syndrome Causes and Cures to all. Please read these laws she has written and consider them as most worthwhile goals for those dealing with students who are struggling. #1: Children are more likely to be achievers if their parents join together to give the same clear and positive message about school effort and expectations. #2: Children can learn appropriate behaviors more easily if they have an effective model to imitate. #3: Communication about a child between adults (referential speaking) dramatically affects children’s behaviors and self-perceptions. #4: Overreactions by parents to children’s successes and failures leads them to feel either intense pressure to succeed or despair and discouragement in dealing with failure. #5: Children feel more tension when they are worrying about their work than when they are doing their work. #6: Children develop self-confidence through struggle. #7: Deprivation and excess frequently exhibit the same symptoms. #8:Children develop confidence and an internal sense of control if power is given to them in gradually increasing increments as they show maturity and responsibility. #9: Children become oppositional if one adult allies with them against a parent or a teacher, making them more powerful than an adult. #10: Adults should avoid confrontations with children unless they are sure they can control the outcomes. #11: Children will become achievers only if they learn to function in competition. #12: Children will continue to achieve if they usually see the relationship between the learning process and its outcomes.

    All of the above laws are useful for leaders. The social changes taking place in our country are having a dramatic impact upon our students. This pandemic has caused clinicians to speak out about the psychological ramifications it is having upon our children. Thus, I am reworking my own goal setting. Let me now quote a most moving paragraph penned by Dr. Rimm in 1986:

    Television and video films display in our living rooms the life-styles and financial rewards of the most successful. Commercials develop an unquenchable thirst for material possessions. Sports and music heroes are more reputed for the fantastic salaries they command than for their hard work or talent. Furthermore, the stories of their successes sound like magical fairy tales with little struggle and much luck. Hero’s value systems appear free of ethical structure - alcohol, drugs, sex, violence and other illegal activities are associated with fame and success. The traditional “rags to riches” image which modeled for American children the path by which hard working, intelligent and creative people climb the ladder from poverty to wealth has been replaced by the media’s magical system, with which any child would like to identify. Brilliant talent is miraculously discovered, and a powerful fairy godmother transforms a poor unrecognized teenager to instant stardom.

    Thank you, Dr. Rimm. I have a great job to do: set goals for myself in helping my students overcome underachievement...and helping them to learn to set goals for themselves. I figure that in my effort to adapt to the world of “Zoom instruction,” my goals need to be sharpened for my interactions with my students and parents. With my career spanning over fifty years, I can see that my goals need to be reset in a new age of pandemic, media, technology, and truly a paradigm shift!

                                                                                        Kay