American Idols in Eagle TV!

The outgoing American Idol judge, Simon Cowell, has the right idea.

Life is tough. Not everyone is perfect at what they are doing. You have to practice, practice, practice to get better. You also need a coach along the way.

That's where I come in.

I've never held back my comments with my students when they don't give me their best work. I can see right through it when they "phone it in" and I let them know. Most of my students think I'm too critical, but how will they get better if I don't set the bar high?

I try not to be mean about it, and with the constructiveness comes a suggestion or an idea for improvement or the offer to help. Here is where most teachers fail.

It is our job to make students better by holding the bar just out of reach until students can hit it. I'm not about to appease a student and his/her efforts just to make him/her feel better. I want to be brutally honest with them. They deserve that from me. If they are receptive to it, it makes them better.

I'll never forget a teacher I had in college, Dr. Jane Bick. She was one of my journalism professors and a teacher I had over the course of several semesters. She had given us an assignment to write a 20-page paper on an overview of a career field from a public relations-management point of view. I chose the airline industry. With my parents having been in the industry for many years, I felt as if I knew a little about it. I was flying on planes from the time I was months old. Many a summer was spent flying around the country visiting family, friends and even to New York city for a haircut!

When it came time to get feedback from Dr. Bick about our paper, she was brutally honest with me: "you are not the writer I thought you were, " she said. I deflated like a popped balloon. It was crushing to me. I left school that day so mad and upset that I wasn't sure how I was going to handle all my rage. I wanted to just give up writing altogether. Maybe I had picked the wrong thing to major in. I'll just go confront her on Monday and give her a piece of my mind about what an insult that was! I was ready.

In the meantime, I worked and worked on that paper over the weekend until I thought I had it so fine tuned no one could find fault. I was ready to turn it in. It was, now that I looked at it, much better than it was the first time I handed it in.

I went to class a little earlier than usual, hoping Dr. Bick would get there early too and I could have a few minutes with her alone. She did. I started to speak and told her that I was completely taken back by her brutally brutal criticism of my paper and my writing. She responded in a way I will never forget: "Lisa, you are one of the best writers in this class. If I don't hold the bar higher for you than I do for others, you will never realize your full potential. My criticism of you and your writing, I hope, will make you a better writer, not give up."

I've never forgotten those words. I saw Dr. Bick later on in life when I worked at the TV station and she told the folks I worked with that I was one of the best writers she had ever seen come through her program at Georgia State. I never expected that! She was incredibly critical of me. I didn't even think she liked me! I dreaded her classes because she was so hard, but over time, she and I became friends. I'll never forget her pushing me the way she did. She pushed me because she knew I had it in me to be excellent and I just wasn't giving it my all.

So remember that even though I may be hard on you (my job as your teacher) it is because I have faith in you and your skills. Blog about a time when you might not have done your best and I caught you. How did it make you feel? Did it help you to improve, or just get you down? What motivates you to get better at whatever you're attempting? How can a little reality check be good for you?

Because just appeasing you and filling you with sugared praise is not doing you any good. Simon has the right idea.