Ya Gotta Have Heart

"Heart" is the thing that heroic legends are made of.
It's the thing that won't let you give in, give up or give out.
It's the thing that you grab on to when you're all used up, the thing that enable you to keep on going long after it's impossible.
It's the thing that says "To hell with the odds; no retreat,no surrender."

I wish I knew how to teach "heart."
Oh, I can tell you, theoretically, how to expose a student to a series of progressively more difficult challenges, encourage them, recognize them, and so on.
And sometimes tat seems to work.
But sometimes it doesn't.

That suggests to me that "heart" is something you bring to the table, yourself.
I think you either have it, or you don't, and I don't know why some do and some don't, or how to change it.

But I can tell you this: give me a student with heart, and I can teach them everything else.
Without it, no matter what mechanics I teach them, it won't matter.

adam