The book, "Discipline without Stress® Punishments or Rewards – How Teachers and parents Promote Responsibility and Learning," has three sections online. One of them has to do with reducing perfectionism. A major point of this section is that a person can not learn and be perfect at the same time. Failure only arrives when a person no longer tries. Failed attempts are learning experiences.
The following is illustrative of this point. It is from one of the support groups (mailring/forum) at DisciplineWithoutStress@yahoogroups:
I used the Raise Responsibility System (RRS) from the teaching model in kindergarten and first grade. There is just no better time to teach responsibility and control. There will be lots of mistakes and some backsliding and a few that don't seem to get it, as there is with any learning, but it is one of the best things I have ever found. I have had 3 children in the last 3 years (all girls!) who were "off the charts behavior-wise" but didn't "qualify" for extra help, and I believe RRS kept me sane.
It may not have helped them the years I taught them, just because they couldn't be responsible in a social way, BUT it sure helped the other students and kept stability in the classroom that wouldn't have happened otherwise.
RRS is also a wonderful gift to parents who are "looking for something" but don't know what to do. I guess the best advice I have is to tell you to not feel as if the RRS system has obstacles to overcome so you can use it. Instead think of it as something that will grow with you and you can tweak so it will work for you.
More information on this topic is available at http://marvinmarshall.com.
