When we are in our production cycle, be it yearbook, broadcast or web design we have little mini conferences. Many times I come to a student who hasn’t turned in the assignment yet and I ask them why they haven’t got anything done.
There are many answers, but like this story on copyblogger says – they mainly boil down to fear. How many different kinds of fear do our kids have?
1) Fear of failure. If they don’t do it, then they didn’t fail. They just didn’t try. It sounds like twisted logic, but it is true.
2) Fear of looking stupid. If they do it and it is dumb, then they will look stupid in front of their peers.
3) Fear of criticism. Sometimes they are perfectionists. They want it right the first time. They can’t handle criticisms.
4) Fear of wasted time. They fear that their first draft is a waste of time, because they know they will have to do it again anyway.
5) Fear that it will be too hard. They don’t want to do it because they feel it is just too difficult.
6) Fear of talking to people. If you don’t like to talk to people, it is hard to interview and collect information.
7) Fear that is doesn’t matter. They don’t want to do all this work and then find out that no one really cares.
8 ) Fear that they can’t think of a good lead. Many of them put so much pressure on themselves to make every lead the very best one. So they never get started.
9) Fear of research. They don’t want to actually have to do any work to get the information for their story. They just want it all to fall in their lap.
10) More fear. Sometimes they don’t know what they are afraid of, they just are afraid of the story.
As an adviser, we must be aware of our student’s fears and help them learn to overcome them. It’s all part of the job.
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Can you tell more?