If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. In a previous post, I talked about the opportunity to help my daughter with an essay. The essay is for her college online history class. As we worked to complete the essay, we noticed there was a 900 word limit to the essay and ended up cutting a huge amount of info from the 3400 words to meet the requirement. Fast forward two weeks to her grade. She received an 84, with a comment from her professor that her essay was okay, but he would have liked for her to incorporate more into the essay. Naturally, she was disappointed. So, I suggested that she send a very respectful email to her professor explaining that her original essay had the discussion but she took it out to meet the word count, and see if she could send the long version. Really what’s the worst that could happen, especially if done respectfully. Her professor could say ‘no’. No harm, no foul, but what if her professor was open to reading it?

So my daughter wrote an email, and her dad and I helped her ensure it was respectful and succinct. She sent it and guess what! Her professor asked her to send him the long version. Keep in mind, my daughter never asked to submit for a new grade, just if she could send it in hopes of garnering partial credit along the way, or a favorable rounding. She sent the long version, and her grade was raised to 94.

This was an amazing outcome, alot of times in life this doesn’t happen.

What did we learn?
First, double-check the expectations before turning the assignment in. Second, ask, always ask. It’s not easy but ask. To that end when you do ask, remember:
1, ‘no’, is a perfectly acceptable answer.
2, if you don’t ask the answer is always ‘no’.

Why do I think this happened? We have guided my daughter to engage her professor all semester even though her class is online. Ask questions, ask advice on how to do better, improve, etc. Because she has engaged her professor and has put forth much effort in building this relationship, her professor knows she is engaged in the class and succeeding is important to her. I also believe because she approached the professor from the standpoint that she had clearly made the mistake and why her approach played in her favor.

There was also the lesson we talked about that because she had engaged her professor early, she was laying the groundwork for good communication. This situation affirmed the importance of that relationship. Learning to engage socially and with a purpose. This lesson taught the importance of learning to ask, show respect and accepting the answer could be no. It is a lesson that I was glad I could experience with The Future and of course the boys as well. In #TeamJackson we all learn.

Shall we? Let’s try again tomorrow