We are in the US with my daughter and family for a few weeks . I took it on myself to help my six year old grand daughter with her home work in English and Mathematics . She is very good and quick on the up take in both the topics and generally score between 90 and 100 % in all her tests given by the Kumon scheme which she attends twice a week .
Yesterday , I was surprised by her performance when she suddenly dropped her grades and did very poorly in addition work . I really could not understand this and my suspicion became more when with a little assistance she could give me the correct answers later . Of course , I gave her a grade of 70 % only .
I discussed this with her parents and asked them to check out with Kumon people and ascertain the method used by them [ the pedagogy ] in teaching addition work so that we can analyze the causes for this deviation in my grand daughter’s grade . They promised to do so.
In the above episode , I did three things wrong , which I realized when my grand daughter started crying stating that she is sad because her grand pa is mad at her ! . We did console her and told her she is brilliant and this was only a bad day .
My first mistake was not checking the questions in detail as it contained some new and comparatively more difficult sums which she was not comprehending fully using the method taught by the Kumon people . Secondly , I shared her results with her parents in her hearing and she felt a terrible sense of shame and loss of face in front of them . Thirdly she perceived some serious inadequacy in her ability to do sums well which shocked her .
When we deal with problems , many of us take the easy path and blame the culprit . If we do so , we can admonish or punish the person , but the causes will not vanish and will surface again . Even though in the instant case , I did explore the root cause but I did not take due care and caution to protect my grand daughter from any blame .
Useful life lessons which have great applicability for managers at every level.