Youth ACHIEVEMENT FOUNDATION

CHARACTER TALK

Patience

1.   Explain to your student what being patient means (Webster’s defines it as “the power of enduring, without complaint, that which is disagreeable”).

 2.   Read to your student the following scenarios and ask them to comment on how patience is (or is not) being practiced.
 

a)   José gets mad at his soccer teammates because he thinks they are not as good as he is.

b)   Math is Maria’s least favorite subject, but she studies for her math test instead of going to her best friend’s slumber party, because she wants to do well on her test.

c)   Emma loses her temper when her little brother steps on her toys.

d)   Antonio practices his multiplication tables every night. He doesn’t know them all yet, but he is determined to practice until he knows them all perfectly.

3.   Patience is rooted in humility. The more a person is aware of their own imperfections the easier it is for them to understand struggle. Furthermore, humble people care more about others than about themselves and this too makes enduring difficultly easier.
 
4.   Patience also develops the virtue of fortitude because it is not easy to persevere in difficult things. But great people learn to persevere and to see difficult jobs through to the end.
 
5.   Patience helps people to be calm and to think clearly under adverse conditions.
 
6.   Share with your student an occasion or two when you have found it difficult to be patient.