By Kat Savino
In the Food Network TV show, “Nailed It!,” amateur bakers (very, very amateur in most cases) are given an near-impossible task; in an absurdly short period of time, they have to make elaborate cakes: a shark leaping from the ocean, a (working!) volcano surrounded by dinosaurs and trees. Basically, the contestants are set up to struggle, but the one who does the least terrible job will win 10,000 dollars.
When watching this show, I kept thinking that some of our students come into the writing center feeling as if they are tasked with something near-impossible. In some ways, I think many feel like they have to make a shark cake while they are still mastering a basic brownie recipe. But they desperately want their paper to be as perfect as possible. They want their paper to be the equivalent of the perfect shark cake.
However, being a student means that you will stumble as you attempt to climb towards mastery of any given skill. When watching the contestants of “Nailed It!” I thought about the bakers who were able to do better than expected. How did they grapple with a task that would daunt even a fairly experienced baker? Looking at how they approached these challenges helped me think about ways we can help students who are still learning to master basic skills.
I noticed that many of the bakers didn’t bother asking for help in the second round, even though all were given a panic button that would allow them to get help from the expert judges. The first step is accepting you need help; you need to push the panic button. The students coming to us, at least, have already learned to ask for help.
When one particular contestant, struggling to roll out fondant for the first time, pushed the panic button, I also noticed the judge facilitate learning transfer. The judge, an expert baker, said: “you’re a mom, and so you’ve handled playdough before. You know how to do this.” This reference worked amazingly well, and the woman was able to make a pretty decent shark skin for the cake. I also think having that small boost of confidence helped. Just reminding students they already know how to do something can impart a feeling of confidence and reduce anxiety.
Something else I noticed: the contestants who let go of the idea that their cake would be perfect performed better. Not worrying about being perfect allowed them to find interesting solutions to problems—so rather than panicking (I don’t know how to make this thing out of fondant!), they tried something unusual and creative (Ok, fine, I’m just going to use this bag of Cheetos I found in the kitchen and figure it out). In other words, it was a specific attitude—one that eschewed perfectionism—that allowed the baker to more successfully navigate an extremely challenging task.
As someone who’s struggled with being a perfectionist, I’ve read quite a bit about it. According to my research, I found that perfectionists get less done and take fewer intellectual risks. Letting go of perfectionism is actually essential to the process of doing any task, but I think it is especially important to let go when a task feels daunting . . . though this is easier said than done, especially when there’s a lot at stake.
As a writing consultant, I keep thinking about ways we can let students make a mess, make mistakes, and see that not being perfect is actually essential. I find it helps to remind students that no one, especially not professional writers, makes everything perfect when drafting. Experienced writers know that this kind of perfectionism thwarts the process. As consultants, we might think of ways we can support intellectual risk-taking and create messy spaces: by encouraging students to write first on paper, for example, or by just having a conversation that’s more informal. We can be anti-perfectionist while also helping students build towards excellence.
Published May 15, 2018
